And soon, to her surprise, and ever-growing discomfort,
Anna Bauer -- her good, faithful old Anna,
for whom she had always had such feelings of affection,
and yes, of gratitude -- began to get on her nerves.
It was not that she associated Anna with the War,
and with all that the War had brought to her personally
of joy and of grief. Rather was it the sudden
perception that her own secret ideals of life and those
of the woman near whom she had lived for close on
eighteen years, were utterly different, and, in a deep
sense, irreconcilable.

Mrs. Otway grew to dislike, with a nervous, sharp
distaste, the very sight of Anna's favourite motto,
_"Arbeit_macht_das_Leben_suss,_und_die_Welt_zum_
_Paradies"_ ("Work makes life sweet and the world a
paradise"). Was it possible that in the old days she
had admired that lying sentiment? Lying? Yes, indeed!
Work did _not_ make life sweet, or she, Mary
Otway, would now be happier than ever, for she had
never worked as hard as she was now working --
working to destroy thought -- working to dull the
dreadful aching at her heart, throwing herself, with a
feverish eagerness which surprised those about her,
into the various war activities which were now, largely
owing to the intelligence and thoroughness of Miss
Forsyth, being organised in Witanbury.

Mrs. Otway also began to hate the other German
mottoes which Anna had put all about the Trellis
House, especially in those rooms which might be regarded
as her own domain -- the kitchen, the old nursery,
and Rose's bedroom. There was something of
the kind embroidered on every single article which
would take a _heruch,_ and Anna's mistress sometimes

[[201]]

p200 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p201w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p202

v?