The streets and the plains resound to the footsteps of armed hosts." "But there is no excuse for war," he reminded her.
"An excuse is very easily found," she sighed.

"German diplomacy is clumsy enough, but I think it can manage that.

Do you know that this morning I had a letter from one of the greatest nobles of our own Court at Vienna?
He knew that I had intended to take a villa in Normandy for August and September.

He has written purposely to warn me not to do so, to warn me not to be away from Austria or Germany after the first of August." "So soon!" he murmured.
They listened to the band for a moment.

In the distance, an unceasing stream of men and women were passing back and forth under the trees and around the polo field.
"It will come like a thunderbolt," she said, "and when I think of it, all that is English in me rises up in revolt.