yet quite confident with regard to her country's part
in the War. He did not say so in so many words, but
it became increasingly clear to his old friend and neighbour,
that the Dean believed that the Germans would
soon be conquered, on land by Russia and by France,
while the British, following their good old rule, would
defeat them at sea.

Many a time, during those early days of war, Mrs.
Otway felt a thrill of genuine pity for Germany. True,
the Militarist Party there deserved the swift defeat that
was coming on them; they deserved it now, just as the
French Empire had deserved it in 1870, though Mrs.
Otway could not believe that modern Germany was as
arrogant and confident as had been the France of the
Second Empire.

Much as she missed Major Guthrie, she was sometimes
glad that he was not there to -- no, not to crow
over her, he was incapable of doing that, but to be
proved right.

There was a great deal of talk of the mysterious passage
of Russians through the country. Some said
there were twenty thousand, some a hundred thousand,
and the stories concerning this secret army of avengers
grew more and more circumstantial. They reached
Witanbury Close from every quarter. And though for
a long time the Dean held out, he at last had to admit
that, yes, he did believe that a Russian army was being
swiftly, secretly transferred, _via_ Archangel and Scotland,
to the Continent! More than one person declared
that they had actually _seen_ Cossacks peeping out of the
windows of the trains which, with blinds down, were
certainly rushing through Witanbury station, one every
ten minutes, through each short summer night.

[[167]]

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v?