lavished so many hours of close and pleasant toil,
would soon be put away for an indefinite stretch
of time; and that knitting, which she had always
disliked doing, would take its place!

But no such thought, no such vision of the future,
came into her mind as she bent her pretty head over
her work.

She felt rather excited, a thought more restless
than usual. England at war, and with Germany!
Dear old Anna's Fatherland -- the great country to
which Rose had always been taught by her mother to
look with peculiar affection, as well as respect and
admiration.

Rose and Mrs. Otway had hoped to go to Germany
this very autumn. They had saved up their pennies --
as Mrs. Otway would have put it -- for a considerable
time, in order that they might enjoy in comfort,
and even in luxury, what promised to be a delightful
tour. Rose could hardly realise even yet that their
journey, so carefully planned out, so often discussed,
would now have to be postponed. They were first
to have gone to Weimar, where Mrs. Otway had
spent such a happy year in her girlhood, and then to
Munich, to Dresden, to Nuremberg -- to all those dear
old towns with whose names Rose had always been
familiar. It seemed such a pity that now they would
have to wait till after the war to go to Germany.

After the war? Fortunately the people she had
seen that day -- and there had been a good deal of
coming and going in the Close -- all seemed to think
that the war would be over very soon, and this pleasant
view had been confirmed in a rather odd way.

Rose's cousin, James Hayley, had rung her up on

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v?