.."
_Michael_: "Nonsense! I'm going to be put up at the Palace Hotel.
Jenkins--you remember the butler of old time?--Jenkins, and my
batman, a refined brigand, a polished robber, have already been
there and commandeered something....
"No. I came here, firstly to find out if you were living; secondly
to ask you to marry me" ... (a pause) ... "and thirdly to find out
what happened to Bertie Adams. A message came through the Spanish
Legation here, a year and a half ago, to the effect that he had died
at Brussels from the consequences of the War. However, unless you
can tell me at once this is all a mistake, we can go into his
affairs later. My first question is--Oh! Bother all this cackle....
_Will_ you marry me?"
_Vivie_: "Dear, brave Bertie, whom I shall everlastingly mourn, was
shot here in Brussels by the abominable Germans, as a spy, on April
8th, 1917. He was of course no more a spy than you are or I am. The
poor devoted fool--I rage still, because I shall never be worth such
folly, such selfless devotion--got into Belgium with false
passports--American: in the hope of rescuing me. He came and
enquired here--my last address in his remembrance--and came by sheer
bad luck just as the Kaiser was about to arrive. They jumped to the
conclusion that--"
_Rossiter_: "_Awfully, cruelly_ sad. But you can give me the details
of it later on.
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