younger officers write to your young lady, in that
strange English way?" and he fixed his prominent
eyes on her face, as if he would fain look Anna
through and through. "I had hoped that we should be
able to do so much business together," he said.

"I have told you of the postcards----" She spoke
in an embarrassed tone.

"Ach! Yes. And I did pay you a trifle for a
sight of them. But that was really politeness, for, as
you know, there was nothing in the postcards of the
slightest use to me."

Anna remained silent. She was of course well
aware that her young lady often received letters, short,
censored letters, from Mr. Jervis Blake. But Rose
kept them in some secret place; also nothing would
have tempted good old Anna to show one of her
darling nursling's love-letters to unsympathetic eyes.

Alfred Head turned to his wife. "Now, Polly,"
he said conciliatingly, "you asked me for what I am
paying." He took up the longest of the letters off
the table. "See here, my dear. This man gives a
list of what he would like his mother to send him
every ten days. As a matter of fact that is how I first
knew Mrs. Tippins had these letters. She brought
one along to show me, to see if I could get her something
special. Part of the letter has been blacked
out, but of course I found it very easy to take that
blacking out," he chuckled. "And what had been
blacked out was as a matter of fact very useful to
me!"

Seeing that his wife still looked very angry and
lowering, he took a big five-shilling piece out of his
pocket and threw it across at her. "There!" he cried

[[208]]

p207 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p208w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p209

v?