"So that is what they say, is it? What do they know about it - these
gossipers?"

"You were not allowed at the conference yesterday," she remarked.

"No one was allowed there, so that goes for nothing."

"Ah! well," she said, looking meditatively out upon the landscape,
"a year ago the thought of that conference would have driven me
wild. I should not have been content until I had learned somehow
or other what had transpired. Lately, I am afraid, my interest in
my country seems to have grown a trifle cold. Perhaps because I
have lived in Vienna I have learned to look at things from your
point of view. Then, too, the world is a selfish place, and our own
little careers are, after all, the most important part of it."

Von Behrling eyed her Curiously.

"It seems strange to hear you talk like this," he remarked.

She looked out of the window for a moment.

"Oh! I still love my country, in a way," she answered, "and I still
hate all Austrians, in a way, but it is not as it used to be with
me, I must admit. If we had two lives, I would give one to my
country and keep one for myself. Since we have only one, I am
afraid, after all, that I am human, and I want to taste some of its
pleasures."