all those about her felt for Germany. Miss Forsyth
was an intelligent woman, and, as her friend knew,
had sources of information denied to the amateur
strategists and gossips of Witanbury Close. So it
was that the forced discontinuance of the little morning
talk, which so often brought comfort to Mrs.
Otway's sore heart, was a real pain and loss.

She had made a spirited protest, pointing out that
all her neighbours had the telephone, and that by
merely asking any of them to allow her servant to
send a message, she could circumvent this, to her,
absurd and unnecessary rule. But her protest had
only brought a formal acknowledgment, and that
very day her telephone had been disconnected.

She would have been astonished, even now, had
she known with what ever-swelling suspicion some of
her neighbours and acquaintances regarded her.

The great rolling uplands round the city were now
covered with vast camps, and Witanbury every day
was full of soldiers; there was not a family in the
Close, and scarce a family in the town, but had more
than one near and dear son, husband, brother, lover,
in the New Armies, if not yet -- as in very many cases
-- already out at the Front.

In spite of what was still described as Rose Otway's
"romantic marriage," Mrs. Otway was regarded as
having no connection with the Army, and her old
affection for Germany and the Germans was resented,
as also the outstanding fact that she still retained
in her service an enemy alien.

And, as is almost always the case, there was some
ground for this feeling, for it was true that the mistress
of the Trellis House took very little interest in

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p282 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p283w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p284

v?