payments from Germany to England, or
from England to Germany, have of course stopped since Wednesday."

And then, when he saw the look of utter dismay deepening into horrified
surprise come over her face, he added hastily, "Of course we must hope
that these moneys will be kept intact till the end of the war. Still, I
doubt very much whether your bankers would allow you to draw on that
probability, even if you were willing to pay a high rate of interest.
German credit is likely to suffer greatly before this war is over."

"But Major Guthrie? I don't suppose you know what this means to me and
to Rose. Why, more than half of everything we have in the world is
invested in Germany!"

"I know that," he said feelingly. "In fact, that was among the first
things, Mrs. Otway, which occurred to me when I learnt that war had been
declared. I expected to find you very much upset about it."

"I never gave it a thought; I didn't know a war could affect that sort
of thing. What a fool I've been! Oh, if only I'd followed your advice--I
mean two years ago!" She spoke with a great deal of painful agitation,
and Major Guthrie felt very much distressed indeed. It was hard that he
should have had to be the bearer of such ill tidings.

"I blame myself very, very much," he said sombrely, "for not having
insisted on your putting that money into English or Colonial
securities."

"Oh, but you did insist!" Even now, in the midst of her keen distress,
the woman's native honesty and generosity of nature asserted itself.
"You couldn't have said more! Don't you remember that we nearly
quarrelled over it? Short of forging my name and stealing my money and
investing it properly for me, you couldn't have done anything more than
you did do, Major Guthrie."

"That you should say that is a great comfort to me," he said in a low
voice. "But even so, I don't feel as if I'd really done enough. You see,
I was as sure--as sure as ever man was of anything--that this war was
going to come either this year or next! As a matter of fact I thought it
would be next year--I thought the Germans would wish to be even more
ready than they are."

"But do you really think they are ready?" she said doubtfully. "Look how
badly they've been doing at Liege." It was strange how Mrs. Otway's mind
had veered round in the last few minutes. She now wanted the Germans to
be beaten, and beaten quickly.

He shook his head impatiently. "Wait till they get into their stride!"
A