Reaching for the Stars [antikvár]

A DAY IN JUNE It was the last Saturday in June, 1934. A soft summer day, the sun's radiance tempered by a breeze. Motoring leisurely across Belgium, my husband and I Stopped in Spa at noon for lunch. We chose an open-fronted restaurant facing on the town square, shaded by awnings striped a cool green and white. My husband has the habit of resting after midday food. While waiting for our salad to be mixed he glanced about in a way which I recognized to be a search for a quiet corner; and I gave my attention to the possibility of having a look at Spa, preferably with a resident of the place. Recently I had read Ereignisse und Gestalten by Kaiser Wilhelm IL Inheritor of the kingdom of Prussia with the emperorship of all Germany and German responsibilities beyond the seas, he abandoned his position, at the threat of German revolution, in a hasty flight from Spa, thus losing for his descendants the power which a notable line of ancestors had won, by military victories and political strategies, for the House of Hohenzollem. So Spa was of interest to me just then, not as a Belgian town but as related to him. The restaurant proprietor kindly sent for his daughter, whom he introduced as an educated woman, a teacher be-