Among other distinguished men who came to see my Princes and their
plays, was General von Kluck--another one of those "great dome heads!"
To me, it seemed the best part of his personality, and certainly the
development was far superior to what I had named the "German officer
head," a crude, unfinished type of head, which gives the impression
that the skull has hardened before the brain had time to finish
growing. General von Kluck did not talk at all to me, or appear to
take any interest in the toy soldiers' battle. He had the air of being
absent-minded and thinking deeply of something far away, in space. I
heard him say that "they" wanted him to go to France to look at it. Who
"they" were, I do not know, or what "it" was that they wished General
von Kluck to see. But I knew that nearly a year after that visit the
children had a present of a fancy red velvet box of chocolate. The
Princess herself brought it into the schoolroom (we seldom had a lesson
that was not interrupted in some way or other), and as the covering
had already been removed, I do not know if the box had been sent from
a distance or had come by hand. The Princess showed the boys General
von Kluck's visiting card, and the writing on it, which said, "French
chocolate from France, for two brave young German soldiers."
Later that day the Prince came and asked to see the box "from old von
Kluck," which by that time was half empty. He looked at the card, and
laughed. "The old dare-devil!" he chuckled. Then he said that, as we
had eaten so much in such a short time it showed that French chocolate
was good.
I seldom or never had any real conversation with the Prince, and it was
not my place to ask questions; but I wondered why General von Kluck
was an "old dare-devil" to go to France, and why the Prince seemed so
pleased and amused about it. Also I remembered what I had heard the
General say some months before, about France. I thought that there
must be a mystery about it, either official, or something to do with a
lady, perhaps a Frenchwoman. I know no more now than I knew then; but I
have heard it said since I came back to England, by a Frenchman, that
General von Kluck is supposed to have visited France incognito, to look
at some quarries near Soissons, which Germans bought and secretly made
ready to use as trenches, beginning their work a year before the war
broke out.