"Germans are much more industrious than our people
are, and they are content with less wages. Also you
must forgive me if I say, dear Miss Forsyth, that I
don't quite see what the jealousy of the average working-man,
or, for the matter of that, of the average
mechanic, has to do with my good old Anna, especially
at such a time as this."

"Don't you really?" Miss Forsyth looked curiously
into the other's flushed and still fair, delicately tinted
face. She had always thought Mary Otway a rather
foolish, if also a lovable, generous-hearted woman.
But this was one of the few opinions Miss Forsyth
always managed to keep to herself.

"I suppose you mean," said the other reluctantly,
"that if I had not had Anna as a servant all these
years I should have been compelled to have an English-
woman?"

"Yes, Mary, that is exactly what I do mean! But
of course I should never have spoken to you about the
matter were it not for today's news. My maid, Pusey,
you know, spoke to me about it this morning, and said
that if you should be thinking of parting with her -- if
your good old Anna should be thinking, for instance,
of going back to Germany -- she knew some
one who she thought would suit you admirably. It's
a woman who was cook in a very good London place,
and whose health has rather given way."

Miss Forsyth spoke with what was for her unusual
animation.

As is always the way with your active, intelligent
philanthropist, she was much given to vicarious deeds
of charity. At the same time she never spared herself.
Her own comfortable house always contained one or

[[9]]

p008 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p009w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p010

v?