he
cried. "Would that a German married she had--an honest, heart-good
German, not a man like that bad, worthless George!"

To this surely unnecessary remark Mrs. Otway had made no answer. It was
unluckily true that Anna's English son-in-law lacked every virtue dear
to a German heart. He was lazy, pleasure-loving, dishonest in small
petty ways, and contemptuous of his thrifty wife's anxious efforts to
save money. Still, though it was not perhaps wise to say so just now, it
would certainly have been a terrible complication if "little Louisa," as
they called her in that household, had married a German--a German who
would have had to go back to the Fatherland to take up arms, perhaps,
against his adopted country! Anna ought surely to see the truth of that
to-day, however unpalatable that truth might be.

But, sad to say, good old Anna had been strangely lacking in her usual
good sense, and sturdy good-humour, this morning. Not content with that
uncalled-for remark concerning her English son-in-law, she had wailed
out something about "Willi"--for so she always called Wilhelm
Warshauer--the nephew by marriage to whom she had become devotedly
attached during the pleasant holiday she had spent in Germany three
years ago.

"I do not think Willi is in the least likely to go to the war and be
killed," said Mrs. Otway at last, a little sharply. "Why, he is in the
police--a sub-inspector! They would never dream of sending him away. And
then---- Anna? I wish you would listen to me quietly for a moment----"

Anna fixed her glazed, china-blue eyes anxiously on her mistress.

"If you go on in this way you will make yourself quite ill; and that
wouldn't do at all! I am quite sure that you will soon hear from your
niece that Willi is quite safe, that he is remaining on in Berlin.
England and Germany are civilised nations after all! There need not be
any unreasonable bitterness between them. Only the soldiers and sailors,
not our two nations, will be at war, Anna."

* * * * *

Yes, the recollection of what had happened this morning left an
aftermath of bitterness in Mrs. Otway's kind heart. It was only too true
that it would sometimes be awkward; in saying so downright Miss Forsyth
had been right! She told herself, however, that after a few days they
surely would all get accustomed to this strange, unpleasant, new state
of things. Why, during the long Napoleonic wars Witanbury had always
been on the _