which had befallen him, she was treating her mother
as she herself would have wished to be treated in a
like case.

A great trouble overshadows all little troubles. One
disagreeable incident which, had life been normal with
her then, would have much irritated and annoyed the
mistress of the Trellis House, was the arrival of a
curt notice stating that her telephone was to be disconnected,
owing to the fact that there resided in her
house an enemy alien in the person of one Anna
Bauer.

Now the telephone had never been as necessary to
Mrs. Otway as it was to many of her acquaintances,
but lately, since her life had become so lonely, she
had fallen into the way of talking over it each morning
with Miss Forsyth.

Miss Forsyth, whom the people of Witanbury
thought so absurdly old-fashioned, had been one of
the very first telephone subscribers in Witanbury.
But she had sternly set her face against its frivolous
and extravagant use. This being so, it was a little
strange that she so willingly spent five minutes or
more of her morning work-time in talking over it
to Mrs. Otway. But Miss Forsyth had become aware
that all was not well with her friend, and this seemed
the only way she was able to help in a trouble or state
of mental distress to which she had no clue -- though
sometimes a suspicion which touched on the fringe
of the truth came into her mind.

During these morning talks they would sometimes
discuss the War. Mrs. Otway never spoke of the
War to anyone else, for even now she could not bring
herself to share the growing horror and, yes, contempt,

[[282]]

p281 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p282w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p283

v?