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Fitz's house was not quite a palace. Its long dining room, at the corner of the street, looked over two thoroughfares. Electric chandeliers burned despite the bright summer evening outside, and reflected lights glittered in the crystal glasses and silver cutlery m
arshaled at each place. Looking around the table at the other female guests, Walter marveled anew at the indecent amount of bosom revealed by upper-class Englishwomen at dinner.
Such observations were adolescent. It was time he got married.
As soon as he sat down, Maud slipped off a shoe and pushed her stockinged toe up the leg of his trousers. He smiled at her, but she saw immediately that he was distracted. "What's the matter?" she said.
"Start a conversation about the Austrian ultimatum," he murmured. "Say you've heard it has been delivered. "
Maud addressed Fitz, at the head of the table. "I believe the Austrian emperor's note has at last been handed in at Belgrade," she said. "Have you heard anything, Fitz?"
Fitz put down his soup spoon. "The same as you. But no one knows what is in it. "
Walter said: "I believe it is very harsh. The Austrians insist on taking a role in the Serbian judicial process. "
"Taking a role!" said Fitz. "But if the Serbian prime minister agreed to that, he'd have to resign. "
Walter nodded. Fitz foresaw the same consequences as he did. "It is almost as if the Austrians want war. " He was perilously close to speaking disloyally about one of Germany's allies, but he felt anxious enough not to care. He caught Maud's eye. She was pale and silent. She, too, had immediately seen the threat.
"One has sympathy for Franz Joseph, of course," Fitz said. "Nationalist subversion can destabilize an empire if it is not firmly dealt with. " Walter guessed he was thinking of Irish independence campaigners and South African Boers threatening the British empire. "But you don't need a sledgehammer to crack a nut," Fitz finished.
Footmen took away the soup bowls and poured a different wine. Walter drank nothing. It was going to be a long evening, and he needed a clear head.
Maud said quietly: "I happened to see Prime Minister Asquith today. He said there could be a real Armageddon. " She looked scared. "I'm afraid I did not believe him-but now I see he might have been right. "
Fitz said: "It's what we're all afraid of. "
Walter was impressed as always by Maud's connections. She hobnobbed casually with the most powerful men in London. Walter recalled that as a girl of eleven or twelve, when her father was a minister in a Conservative government, she would solemnly question his cabinet colleagues when they visited Ty Gwyn; and even then such men would listen to her attentively and answer her patiently.
She went on: "On the bright side, if there is a war Asquith thinks Britain need not be involved. "
Walter's heart lifted. If Britain stayed out, the war need not separate him from Maud.
But Fitz looked disapproving. "Really?" he said. "Even if. . . " He looked at Walter. "Forgive me, von Ulrich-even if France is overrun by Germany?"
Maud replied: "We will be spectators, Asquith says. "
"As I have long feared," Fitz said pompously, "the government does not understand the balance of power in Europe. " As a Conservative, he mistrusted the Liberal government, and personally he hated Asquith, who had enfeebled the House of Lords; but, most importantly, he was not totally horrified by the prospect of war. In some ways, Walter feared, he might relish the thought, just as Otto did. And he certainly thought war preferable to any weakening of British power.
Walter said: "Are you quite sure, my dear Fitz, that a German victory over France would upset the balance of power?" This line of discussion was rather sensitive for a dinner party, but the issue was too important to be brushed under Fitz's expensive carpet.
Fitz said: "With all due respect to your honored country, and to His Majesty Kaiser Wilhelm, I fear Britain could not permit German control of France. "
That was the trouble, Walter thought, trying hard not to show the anger and frustration he felt at these glib words. A German attack on Russia's ally France would, in reality, be defensive-but the English talked as if Germany was trying to dominate Europe. Forcing a genial smile, he said: "We defeated France forty-three years ago, in the conflict you call the Franco-Prussian War. Great Britain was a spectator then. And you did not suffer by our victory. "
Maud added: "That's what Asquith said. "
"There's a difference," Fitz said. "In 1871, France was defeated by Prussia and a group of minor German kingdoms. After the war, that coalition became one country, the modern Germany-and I'm sure you will agree, von Ulrich, my old friend, that Germany today is a more formidable presence than old Prussia. "
Men like Fitz were so dangerous, Walter thought. With faultless good manners they would lead the world to destruction. He struggled to keep the tone of his reply light. "You're right, of course-but perhaps formidable is not the same as hostile. "
"That's the question, isn't it?"
At the other end of the table, Bea coughed reproachfully. No doubt she thought this topic too contentious for polite conversation. She said brightly: "Are you looking forward to the duchess's ball, Herr von Ulrich?"
Walter felt reproved. "I feel sure the ball will be absolutely splendid," he gushed, and was rewarded with a grateful nod from Bea.
Aunt Herm put in: "You're such a good dancer!"
