“That’s a nice thing to send a fellow after four years’ imprisonment, isn’t it?” he says, and then he breaks into heart-breaking laughter.
“I was so sure of her, too. I thought she would do anything for me—anything.”
Again he laughs—wildly, fiercely.
“What has happened to the woman? Has the accursed war taken all the heart out of her? The German people, too—have they all gone mad? Starving German children, drowning German sailors, burning German airmen! Good Lord, has the whole nation gone crazy?”
Mona feels as if she were choking.
“She is old and hasn’t much longer to live, and just because I’m going to marry the best girl in the world and take her home with me....”
But his laughter breaks into sobs and he can say no more. Mona feels the tears in her throat as well as in her eyes, but at length she says:
“Oskar, it’s all my fault. I’ve come between you. You must go home without me—to your country and your mother.”
Oskar lifts his broken face and cries: