Achmed Abdullah

“ He had also heard of another Germany, a Germany of simple, pure, naked strength, of stout walls built only for defense, of a kind of ancient, barbarous, Teutonic contempt for useless decorations, a land of bare stone, hard wood, brick floors. Yet here was this great boulevard "we are proud of it," said Baron von Götz-Wrede. "It's the finest in the world. ”

“ I'll make my peace with the Prince. I had rather an idea that—" and a less ingenuous mortal than Tom Graves might have noticed that at the words von Götz-Wrede gave a slight wink in the direction of the immaculate Krauss, who was busy with the breakfast dishes—"yes! I had rather an idea that you would change your mind. Why not? People are always liable to do that."
That last was a statement which jarred unpleasantly on the Westerner, since a change of mind was the very thing which clashed with his solid principles.
"But—but—" he stammered in a sort of flustered self-defense. ”

“ And a minute later they were on the street, on the earth-covered, bush-framed riding track that paralleled the sidewalk, where Tom, appreciating the fine points of the two bay mares with the quick, loving eye of the connoisseur, petted their soft noses and their coquettish, tufted ears with knowing hand. ”

“ Jägers in rifle green, gunners in sober dark blue, sappers and men of the Service Corps, all clanking their sabers truculently against the pavement, ogling the women, twirling their mustaches, sure, if not of themselves as individuals, then of themselves as a caste. ”

“ People on foot. People on horseback. Many in motor-cars of rakish shapes. A very few in carriages.
Berlin taking its swagger Sunday promenade in the year 1913, proud of itself, enormously certain of the fact that it was ahead of the rest of the world in art and civilization and culture!
Berlin a twelve-month before a mad Kaiser, helped by mad Junkers, mad professors, a mad army, a mad clergy, assaulted the decencies of the world ... A year before the free world rose in self-defense and struck back at the crazed Beast! ”

“ CHAPTER XVI THE HORSEMAN Tom's whole life, his whole philosophy, his whole decency, was a rough fact reduced to rough order. A simple man, he did not practice that maddening and useless mental stenography known to the elect as analytical psychology. He never dissected either his own or other people's emotions. Always had he believed that every question in life could, and should, be answered by a simple yes, or an as simple no ”