Page:The Prime Minister by Hall Caine.djvu/79

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THE PRIME MINISTER
55

[Kissing him.] Good-bye, Dr. Hoffmann! Good- bye, Freda! You dearest, dearest girl! It will be all right. You'll see it will. Good-bye, everybody!

[She is at the door, about to go out, when a military band, playing a patriotic tune, is heard passing through the square with soldiers marching to it, and singing as they march.

[Margaret stands listening—her face is quivering with passion. As the playing and singing are dying down, she sweeps round to the piano and bangs out the tune of "Deutschland über Alles."

Mrs. Schiller.
[Terrified.] Margaret! Margaret!

[Margaret stops on a broken bar, rises, steps to door, and as the singing dies off she recites in a wild, fierce, mocking, defiant voice.

Margaret.
" French and Russian, they matter not,
A blow for a blow, and a shot for a shot.
We love them not, we hate them not,
We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe, and one alone—
England!"

[Laughs wildly and goes out, clashing the door behind her. The others stand dazed. The military band dies away in the distance.

CURTAIN