But always with the stedfast hope and purpose that he
might somehow reach and rescue Vivie Warren.
CHAPTER XVII
THE GERMANS IN BRUSSELS: 1915-1916
In the early spring of 1915, Vivie, anxious not to see her mother in
utter penury, and despairing of any effective assistance from the
Americans (very much prejudiced against her for the reasons already
mentioned), took her mother's German and Belgian securities of a
face value amounting to about L18,000 and sold them at her Belgian
bank for a hundred thousand francs (L4,000) in Belgian or German
bank notes. She consulted no one, except her mother. Who was there
to consult? She did not like to confide too much to Colonel von
Giesselin, a little too prone in any case to "protect" them. But as
she argued with Mrs. Warren, what else were they to do in their
cruel situation? If the Allies were eventually victorious, Mrs.
Warren could return to England. There at least she had in safe
investments L40,000, ample for the remainder of their lives. If
Germany lost the War, the German securities nominally worth two
hundred thousand marks might become simply waste paper; even now
they were only computed by the bank at a purchase value of about one
fifth what they had stood at before the War. If Germany were
victorious or agreed to a compromise peace, her mother's shares in
Belgian companies might be unsaleable.
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