Chapter I

"And now," asked Miss Forsyth thoughtfully, "and
now, my dear Mary, what, may I ask, are you
going to do about your good old Anna?"

"Do about Anna?" repeated the other. "I don't
quite understand what you mean."

In her heart Mrs. Otway thought she understood
very well what her old friend, Miss Forsyth, meant
by the question. For it was Wednesday, the 5th of
August, 1914. England had just declared war on
Germany, and Anna was Mrs. Otway's faithful,
highly valued German servant.

Miss Forsyth was one of those rare people who
always require an answer to a question, and who also
(which is rarer still) seldom speak without having
first thought out what they are about to say. It was
this quality of mind, far more than the fact that she
had been born, sixty years ago, in the Palace at
Witanbury, which gave her the position she held in
the society of the cathedral town.

But this time she herself went on speaking: "In
your place I should think very seriously of sending
Anna back to Germany." There was an unusual

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v?