a pencil and block of paper in his hand, saw the surprised,
regretful look on his valued customer's face.

"I have had to put away all my nice, fresh _Delicatessen_,"
he said in a low voice. "It seemed wiser to
do so, gracious lady." He spoke in German, and it
was in German that she answered.

"Did you really think it necessary to do such a
thing? I think you are unfair on your adopted country,
Mr. Hegner! English people are not so unreasonable
as that."

He was about to answer, when an odd-looking man,
rather like a sailor, came in, and Mr. Hegner, with
a hurried "Please excuse me one minute, ma'am,"
in English, went off to attend to the new comer.

As Mr. Hegner went across his shop, Mrs. Otway
was struck by his curious resemblance to the German
Emperor; in spite of the fact that he was wearing
a long white apron, he had quite a martial air. He
certainly deserved his nickname. There were the
same piercing, rather prominent eyes, the same look
of energy and decision in his face; also the same
peculiar turned-up moustache. But whereas the resemblance
last week would have brought a smile, now
it brought a furrow of pain to the English lady's kindly
face.

Poor Manfred Hegner! What must he and thousands
of others like him -- excellent, industrious, civil-spoken
Germans -- feel all through England today?

Mrs. Otway, who had always liked the man, and who
enjoyed her little chats with him, knew perhaps rather
more about this prosperous tradesman than most of
the Witanbury people knew. She was aware that
he had been something of a rolling stone; he had,

[[39]]

p038 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p039w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p040

v?