"Mrs. Otway told me. This Major is a great friend
of my ladies. But though it was she who told me
about Boulogne, I heard the good-byes said in the hall.
Everything can be heard from my kitchen, you see."

"Try and remember exactly what it was that this
Major said. It may be of special interest to me."

"He said" -- she hesitated a moment, and then, in
English, quoted the words: "He said, 'I shall be very
busy seeing about my kit before I leave England.'"

_"Before_I_leave_England?"_ he repeated meditatively.
"Yes, if you did indeed hear him say those words
they are proof positive, Frau Bauer."

"Of course they are!" she said triumphantly.

They had a long and pleasant meal, and old Anna
enjoyed every moment of it. Not since she had spent
that delightful holiday in Berlin had she drunk so
much beer at one sitting. And it was such nice light
beer, too! Mrs. Otway, so understanding as to most
things connected with Germany, had sometimes expressed
her astonishment at the Germans' love of beer;
she thought it, strange to say, unhealthy, as well as
unpalatable.

To this day Anna could remember the resentful pain
with which she had learnt, some time after she had
arrived at the Trellis House, that many English ladies
allowed their servants "beer money." Had she made
a stand at the first, she too might have had "beer
money." But, alas! Mrs. Otway, when engaging her,
had observed that in her household coffee and milk
took the place of alcohol. Poor Anna, at that time in
deep trouble, finding her eight-year-old child an almost
insuperable bar to employment, would have accepted
any conditions, however hard, to find a respecta-

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p143 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p144w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p145

v?