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 today, 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

[[20]]

p019 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p020w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p021

v?