The Project Gutenberg EBook of Good Old Anna, by Marie Belloc Lowndes

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Title: Good Old Anna

Author: Marie Belloc Lowndes

Release Date: July 25, 2007 [EBook #22144]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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GOOD OLD ANNA

By MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES

Author of
"The Chink in the Armour," "The Lodger,"
"The End of Her Honeymoon," etc., etc.

NEW YORK

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

GOOD OLD ANNA

CHAPTER I

"And now," asked Miss Forsyth thoughtfully, "and now, my dear Mary,
what, may I ask, are you going to do about your good old Anna?"

"Do about Anna?" repeated the other. "I don't quite understand what you
mean."

In her heart Mrs. Otway thought she understood very well what her old
friend, Miss Forsyth, meant by the question. For it was Wednesday, the
5th of August, 1914. England had just declared war on Germany, and Anna
was Mrs. Otway's faithful, highly valued German servant.

Miss Forsyth was one of those rare people who always require an answer
to a question, and who also (which is rarer still) seldom speak without
having first thought out what they are about to say. It was this quality
of mind, far more than the fact that she had been born, sixty years ago,
in the Palace at Witanbury, which gave her the position she held in the
society of the cathedral town.

But this time she herself went on speaking: "In your place I should
think very seriously of sending Anna back to Germany." There was an
unusual note of hesitation and of doubt in her voice. As a rule Miss
Forsyth knew exactly what she thought about everything, and what she
herself would be minded to do in any particular case.

But the other lady, incensed at what she considered uncalled-for, even
rather impertinent advice, replied sharply, "I shouldn't think of doing
anything so unkind and so unjust! Why, because the powers of evil have
conquered--I mean by that the dreadful German military party--shoul