formation to the proper quarter, and
since then watch has been kept in the woods just above it. Last night
only the coastguard police caught four men at it--all Germans. They
tried to escape as they did before, by rowing down the river, but there
was a steam launch below which intercepted them. They had on them a
chart of the reach, with soundings, nearly complete; and when they
searched their houses--they are all tenants of your astute father, who
merely laughed at us--they found a very decent map of certain private
areas at Harwich. Oh, I'm not such a fool as I look. They thanked me, my
dear, for my information, and I very gracefully said that my information
was chiefly got by you."

"But did those men live in Ashbridge?" asked Michael.

"Yes; and your father will have four decorous houses on his hands. I am
glad: he should not have laughed at us. It will teach him, I hope. And
now, my dear, I must go."

She stood up, and put her hand on Michael's arm.

"And you know what I think of you," she said. "To-morrow evening, then.
I hate music usually; but then I adore Mr. Hermann. I only wish he
wasn't a German. Can't you get him to naturalise himself and his
sister?"

"You wouldn't ask that if you had seen him in Munich," said Michael.

"I suppose not. Patriotism is such a degrading emotion when it is not
English."

Michael's "Variations" came some half-way down the programme next
evening, and as the moment for them approached, Lady Ashbridge got more
and more excited.

"I hope he knows them by heart properly, dear," she whispered to
Michael. "I shall be so nervous for fear he'll forget them in the
middle, which is so liable to happen if you play without your notes."

Michael laid his hand on his mother's.

"Hush, mother," he said, "you mustn't talk while he's playing."

"Well, I was only whispering. But if you tell me I mustn't--"

The hall was crammed from end to end, for not only was Hermann a person
of innumerable friends, but he had already a considerable reputation,
and, being a German, all musical England went to hear him. And to-night
he was playing superbly, after a couple of days of miserable nervousness
over his debut as a pianist; but his temperament was one of those
that are strung up to their highest pitch by such nervous agonies; he
required just that to make him do full justice to his own personality,
and long before he came to the "Variations," Michael felt quite at ease
about his success.