bore above its plate-glass windows the inscription in
huge gilt letters, _"The_Witanbury_Stores."_

The Monday Bank Holiday had been prolonged,
and so the Stores were only, so to speak, half open.
But as Mrs. Otway stepped through into the shadowed
shop, the owner of the Stores, Manfred Hegner by
name, came forward to take her orders himself.

Manfred Hegner was quite a considerable person
in Witanbury. Not only was he the biggest retail
tradesman in the place, and an active member of the
Witanbury City Council, but he was known to have
all sorts of profitable irons in the fire. A man to
keep in with, obviously, and one who was always
willing to meet one half-way. Because of his German
birth -- he had been naturalised some years ago -- and
even more because of certain facial and hirsute peculiarities,
he went by the nickname of "The Kaiser."

Mrs. Otway took out of her bag a piece of paper
on which she had written down, at her old Anna's
dictation, a list of groceries and other things needed
at the Trellis House. And then she looked round,
instinctively, towards the corner of the large shop
where all that remained of what had once been the
mainstay of Manfred Hegner's business was always
temptingly set forth. This was a counter of _Delicatessen._
Glancing at the familiar corner, Mr. Hegner's
customer told herself that her eyes must be
playing her false. In the place of the familiar sausages,
herrings, the pretty coloured basins of sauerkraut,
and other savoury dainties, there now stood
nothing but a row of large uninteresting Dutch
cheeses!

The man who was waiting attentively by her side,

[[38]]

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