“Not always, my friend.”
“No, not always, thank God!”
After that they turn to Mona, congratulating her on the cleanliness of her dairy, and asking her what help she has to keep things going. Being afraid to speak of Oskar, she tells them she is alone.
“Wonderful!” says one of them. “But it’s what I always say—one person working with his heart will do more than ten who are working with their hands only.”
“It’s the same on the battlefield,” says the other. “And that’s why this country has won the war, and the Germans have lost it.”
“Lost it?” says Mona. “Is the war over, then?”
“It soon will be, my girl. Your enemy may make a last kick, but the war cannot last much longer.”
Mona’s heart leaps up. Can it be possible that the war is coming to an end? Then it will soon be well with her and Oskar.
It is not because Oskar is a German, but because the Germans are at war with her own people that her people look black at her. It is war, not race, that is the great obstacle to their love, and when the war is over the obstacle will be gone.