human
Tired?
gpt
Not the least, she said,
human
Yes,
gpt
If I were a man--
human
If you were a man--?
gpt
I'd enlist. I wouldn't wait for this country to go to war. I'd go across. A good many boys have gone, haven't they? I'd go across and be an aviator--or anything they'd let me be....
human
For the Allies? I took it for granted you would be on the other side of the fence.
gpt
Pro-German! Her eyes flashed.
human
I leave that for Father and his cronies. I believe they _celebrated_ last night--actually. My mother wasn't German, she said. Potter knew Mrs. von Essen had died two years before.
gpt
she said, presently.
human
I ought to; I've lived among them all my life.... Sometimes I think the whole race is a button short. Potter was to learn that in her vocabulary
gpt
meant not quite complete mentally.
human
I like some of them, and I'd even trust some of them, but most of them are arrogant _beasts_.... I've read their books, she said.
gpt
Dad has a lot of them. People used to think they were nice, slow, harmless, fat, good-natured. Maybe some of them are. But I believe that's what the German government _wanted_ the world to think. These were unusual words to hear falling from a girl's lips. She had been _thinking_. Perhaps that had happened in her life which made her think.
human
Will we declare war?
gpt
Last night I was sure we would. To-day I'm almost as sure we won't.
human
People don't realize.... But we'll be in it, she said.
gpt
No matter how much we try to stay out, they'll force us in. They'll sink another _Lusitania_ and another and another, until we _have_ to come in. You'll see.... Partly because they don't understand--and partly because that's the kind they are. You know a German never understands anybody but a German. They can't. Just before Mother died she said to me, 'Garde'--she always called me Garde--'don't marry a German, honey. Nobody but a German woman should marry a German.' And Mother ought to know, oughtn't she? I'd rather marry a _Chinaman_,
human
If we have war, what will all the Germans in this country do?
gpt
Talk loudly till war is declared. Then shut up and do sneaky things. Nothing in the open.... I think, she said, slowly, evidently trying to set aside prejudice and cling to fact--
human
I think most of them will be loyal. In spite of their talk, I don't believe most of them would care to live in Germany and in German conditions. That's why. But there'll be enough. She got up quickly and teed her ball.
gpt
Let's go on,