Watch on the Rhine

So the moment has come.

This time, it is of the utmost importance.

Please do not talk. Please do not seem nervous.

Papa told you it is good manners to speak the language of the country you visit.

Therefore, speak in English.

I said, whenever we have crossed a border...

...I so fix my feet from one country to the other.

I have found it to be of good luck.

- And so I advise all of you-- - Yes.

You are one of the many people who are so pleased with what they say...

...that the 10th time they have said it, it is as fresh to them as the first.

Spare us.

- I can't believe it, darling. - I give you orders to believe it.

And now you are in your own land, Sara.

And that is good.

Your face is most happy, Sara.

And most pretty.

Are you comfortable?

Oh, yes, Mama. This is most luxurious.

I am surprised. The United States of America...

...is a sun-lighted, dusty country with vegetation of no great height and--

You are ready to write a book about it?

This part of it is, Bodo.

But this part of the country is strange to me too.

Perhaps all of it will be strange to me.

It's been 17 years.

Carterville, next stop. Carterville.

There are, I think, others here who are not Americans.

You do not know that people from the utmost different parts of the world...

...have found refuge in the United States of America?

We know that.

I did not imagine houses in America...

...to be as those I have seen from this train.

Do you think the house of Mama's mother is one such?

I do not know.

Is it that you have been accustomed to palaces?

I do not complain. I only ask. I live where Mama and Papa take us.

But it is only natural I have curiosity for our relatives.

Joseph.

- Morning. - Good morning, madame.

- Everybody down? - No. Nobody down. I'll get your tea.

Breakfast is at 9:00 in this house, and will be until the day after I die.

Ring the bell.

But it ain't 9:00 yet, Miss Fanny. It's 8:30.

Well, put the clocks up to 9 and ring the bell.

Mr. David told me not to ring it anymore.

He say it got too mean a ring, that bell. It disturbs folks.

That's what it was put there for. I like to disturb folks.

Yes'm.

I couldn't sleep.

I kept thinking of Sara coming home.

But you slept well, Anise. You were asleep before I could dismantle myself.

I woke several times during the night.

Did you? Then you were careful not to stop snoring.

Now that Sara and her family are coming, we must get around to moving your room.

Jenny's daughter is still going with that actor.

An actor. Fashions in sin change.

In my day, it was Englishmen.

Oh, my mail looks dull. Anything in anybody else's mail?

The usual advertisements for Mr. David.

For the Count and Countess de Brancovis...

...nothing but what seems to be an invitation to a lower-class embassy tea.

And some letters asking for bills to get paid.

That's every morning. In the weeks Marthe and her husband have been visiting us...

...they seem to have run up many bills.

Yes, I told you that.

Why do you suppose anybody would give charge accounts to Romanian nobility?

Perhaps because they are the guests of Madame Joshua Farrelly.

Perhaps.

How does David's flirtation with Marthe get on? Anything happen?

Happen? I don't know what you mean.

You know very well what I mean.

Oh, that. Oh, no. I don't think that.

I must--

- Joseph. - Yes'm.

Little birds, I don't blame you.

Joseph, stop that.

It ain't me, Mr. David. I don't like any noise.

Miss Fanny told me.

- She didn't tell you to hang yourself. - I ain't hung.

- Good morning, David. - Good morning, Marthe.

I'm going to have a chicken house fixed up as a playroom for my mother.

I will hang it with bells...

and she can go into her second childhood in the proper privacy.

She'll only make us have breakfast there.

David. Come to breakfast.

Shall we go down together?

Couldn't you ask your admirer if it would be possible...

...to have a breakfast a little later than 9:00?

I don't mind that as much as having to eat it on the terrace.

Any morning it's not positively snowing.

Anything Madame Fanny's long-dead husband did...

...she thinks God intended everybody else to do.

It's unfortunate that early American liberals were such a hardy people.

Breakfast promptly at 9, outdoors. Dinner promptly at 8.

I won't be in tonight to dinner. Does that please you?

- You might have it with David. - I might.

With whom are you dining?

Oh, you will not bump into me. I'll be at the German Embassy.

Teck, I've asked you--

You slept well. It doesn't seem to matter to you...

...that your sister whom you haven't seen is coming home.

But they aren't coming today, Mama.

I lay awake most of the night thinking of Sara and of your father.

Wondering what he would have thought...

...coming home with her husband and children.

Three grandchildren. He'd have liked that.

- I hope I shall. - You will.

Anything in my mail, Anise?

- Advertisements only. - Thanks.

You and Mama save me a lot of time reading.

I cannot speak for Madame Fanny, but I have never opened a letter in my life.

You don't have to. For you, they fly open.

It's true. You're a snooper, Anise.

It shows an interest in life.

- Bonjour , Mademoiselle Anise. - Bonjour , madame.

Oh, there you are. Don't people ever get out of bed in Romania?

Good morning.

Not if they can help it. But, my apologies.

Here I am, Miss Fanny.

Has science a name for women who enjoy noise?

Fanny's excited.

You're excited too.

A few more days and your Sara will be home.

I am excited. And I'm afraid too.

- Why? - I don't know. It's been so many years.

Afraid she won't like me anymore, I guess.

Oh, but she will.

Of course.

I remember Sara.

Mama brought me one day when your father was stationed in Paris.

I was about 6 and Sara was about 15, and you were--

You were a pretty little girl.

Do you really remember me? You never told me.

- I wanted you to remember me, but I-- - Well.

Monsieur Chabeuf the upholsterer says, not a pincushion...

...not even so much as, could he reupholster in two days.

In the matter of four chairs, a chaise longue, and two--

Oh, nonsense. Your Monsieur Chabeuf is lazy.

Is he on the phone?

- Everybody's lazy. Except me. - Indeed.

Madame Fanny has energy. I find it most attractive.

Perhaps because you're not related to it. But it works wonders.

What sort of man is the husband of your sister?

I've never met him. My mother did once, in Munich.

The day Sara met him, I think.

I remember Mama telling me about it. It was rather a scandal, wasn't it?

The Farrelly daughter marrying a German who was poor and unknown.

Oh, Mama wouldn't have minded that.

If only they'd come home and allowed her to arrange their lives for them.

But Sara didn't want it that way and that made Mama angry.

But all was forgiven a long time ago. And now that they are coming home--

They're fortunate to be able to get out of Germany.

Oh, they've been out of Germany since the early '30s.

Oh?

- Where have they been living? - They've moved around a great deal since.

Sara's letters come from all kinds of places...

...Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France.

Kurt is an engineer. But I'm not sure--

Well, you'll have a house full of refugees soon. Us and the--

Are you a refugee?

I'm not sure I know what you're a refugee from.

From Europe.

From what Europe?

- Just Europe. - David. David!

This is one of Mama's screaming days.

I'm going to the office before she finds any more errands for me to do.

I've got to ask Penfield about the best school for 12-year-old girls.

Ask Walton about a school for boys.

Buy boys' books, buy girl's books, buy bicycles...

...three puppies....

From what Europe?

I'm not sure what we're refugees from either.

Aren't you?

A great many mistaken people seem to have given you a great many charge accounts.

It'd be nice to be able to pay bills again.

Do not act as though I refuse to pay them.

I did not sleep well last night. I was worried.

We have $85 in American Express checks.

- That is all we have, Marthe. - Maybe something will turn up. It's due.

David?

- Money does not worry you? - It worries me very much.

But I just lie still now and hope. I'm glad to be here.

We've come to the end of a road. It's been true for a long time.

Things will have to go one way or the other.

Maybe they'll go well for a change.

I have not come to the end of any road.

No? I admire you.

Perhaps because you think the road will lead you back to Europe again?

You can't give up that dream, can you, Teck?

That you can get back into their good graces again?

That they'll let you come back and play? You ought to stay away from them.

- You have political convictions? - I don't know what I have.

But I've never liked Nazis and you should have had enough of them.

They seem to have had enough of you.

They're smarter than you are and it's time you let them alone.

I think you're trying to say something to me.

What is it?

That you ought not to be seen at the German Embassy.

And that it's insane to go on playing poker there with only $85 left.