A third son was wounded in Poland. Her two daughters had lost their
promised lovers, and the sight of their silent grief, was intensifying
the mother's suffering. Von Hartrott continued presiding over patriotic
societies and making plans of expansion after the near victory, but he
had aged greatly in the last few months. The "sage" was the only one
still holding his own. The family afflictions were aggravating the
ferocity of Professor Julius von Hartrott. He was calculating, in a book
he was writing, the hundreds of thousands of millions that Germany must
exact after her triumph, and the various nations that she would have to
annex to the Fatherland.
Dona Luisa imagined that in the avenue Victor Hugo, she could hear the
mother's tears falling in her home in Berlin. "You will understand,
Luisa, my despair. . . . We were all so happy! May God punish those
who have brought such sorrow on the world! The Emperor is innocent. His
adversaries are to blame for it all . . ."
Don Marcelo was silent about the letter in his wife's presence. He
pitied Elena for her losses, so he overlooked her political connections.
He was touched, too, at Dona Luisa's distress about Otto. She had been
his godmother and Desnoyers his godfather. That was so--Don Marcelo had
forgotten all about it; and the fact recalled to his mental vision the
placid life of the ranch, and the play of the blonde children that he
had petted behind their grandfather's back, before Julio was born.
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