Anna drew back stiffly. "How they do gossip in this town!" she exclaimed, frowning. "Courting my young lady, indeed! No, Mr. Hegner, it was not Mr. Hayley who told this. Mr. Hayley is one of those who talk a great deal without saying anything."
"Then on whose authority do you speak?" He spoke with a certain rough directness.
"I know because Major Guthrie started for Belgium on Friday last, at two o"clock. By now he must be there, fighting our folk."
"Major Guthrie?" He looked puzzled. "Is he a gentleman of the garrison?--surely not?"
"No, no. He has nothing to do with the garrison!" exclaimed Anna. "But you must have very often seen him, for he is constantly in the town. And he speaks German, Mr. Hegner. I should have thought he would have been in to see you."
"You mean the son of the old lady who lives at Dorycote? They have never dealt at my Stores"--there was a tone of disappointment, of contempt, in Mr. Hegner"s voice. "But that gentleman has retired from the Army, Frau Bauer; it is not he, surely, whom they would call out to fight?"
"Still, all the same, he is going to Belgium. To France first, and then to Belgium." She spoke very positively, annoyed at being doubted.
Mr. Hegner hesitated for a moment. He stroked his moustache. "I daresay this Major has gone back to his old regiment, for the English have mobilised their army--such as it is. But that does not mean that they are sending troops to the Continent."
"But I even know where the Major is going to land in France."
Mr. Hegner drew in his breath. "Ach!" he said. "That is _really_ interesting! Do you indeed? And what is the name of the place?"
"Boulogne," she said readily.
"But how do you know all this?" he asked slowly.
"Mrs. Otway told me. This Major is a great friend of my ladies. But though it was she who told me about Boulogne, I heard the good-byes said in the hall. Everything can be heard from my kitchen, you see."
"Try and remember exactly what it was that this Major said. It may be of special interest to me."
"He said"--she hesitated a moment, and then, in English, quoted the words: "He said, "I shall be very busy seeing about my kit before I leave England.""
_"Before I leave England?"_ he repeated meditatively. "Yes, if you did indeed hear him say those words they are proof positive, Frau Bauer."
"Of course they are!" she said triumphantly.
They had a long and pleasant meal, and old Anna enjoyed every moment of it. Not since she had spent that delightful holiday in Berlin had she drunk so much beer at one sitting. And it was such nice light beer, too!
Mrs. Otway, so understanding as to most things connected with Germany, had sometimes expressed her astonishment at the Germans" love of beer; she thought it, strange to say, unhealthy, as well as unpalatable.
To this day Anna could remember the resentful pain with which she had learnt, some time after she had arrived at the Trellis House, that many English ladies allowed their servants "beer money." Had she made a stand at the first, she too might have had "beer money." But, alas! Mrs.
Otway, when engaging her, had observed that in her household coffee and milk took the place of alcohol. Poor Anna, at that time in deep trouble, finding her eight-year-old child an almost insuperable bar to employment, would have accepted any conditions, however hard, to find a respectable roof once more over her head and that of her little Louisa.
But, as time had gone on, she had naturally resented Mrs. Otway"s peculiar rule concerning beer, and she had so far broken it as to enjoy a jug of beer--of course at her own expense--once a week. But she had only begun doing that after Mrs. Otway had raised her wages.
Host and guest talked on and on. Mr. Hegner confided to Anna his coming change of name, and he seemed pleased to know that she thought it quite a good plan.
Then suddenly he began to cross-question her about Mr. James Hayley. But unluckily she could tell him very little beyond at last admitting that he was, without doubt, in love with her young lady. There was, however, nothing very interesting in that.
Yes, Mr. Hayley was fond of talking, but, as Anna had said just now, he talked without saying anything, and she was too busy to pay much heed to what he did say. He had come to dinner yesterday, that is, Sat.u.r.day, but he had had to leave Witanbury early this morning. The one thing Anna _did_ remember having heard him remark, for he said it more than once, was that up to the last moment they had all thought, in _his_ office, that there would be no war.
"He is not the only one. I, too, believed that the war would only come next year," observed Anna"s host ruefully.
The old woman thought these questions quite natural, for all Germans have an insatiable curiosity concerning what may be called the gossip side of life.
At last Manfred Hegner pushed back his chair.
"Will you look at the pictures in these papers, Frau Bauer? I have to go upstairs for something. I shall not be gone for more than two or three minutes." He opened wide a sheet showing the Kaiser presiding at fire drill on board his yacht.
Then, leaving his visitor quite happy, he hurried upstairs, and going into his bedroom, locked the door and turned on the electric light. With one of the twin tiny keys he always carried on his watch-chain he opened his safe, and in a very few moments had found what he wanted. Polly would indeed have been surprised had she seen what it was. From the back of the pile of letters she had never disturbed, he drew out a shabby little black book. It was a book of addresses written in alphabetical order, and there were the names of people, and of places, all over the Continent. This little book had been forwarded, registered, by one of its present possessor"s business friends in Holland some ten days ago, together with a covering letter explaining the value, in a grocery business, of these addresses. Mr. Hegner was not yet familiar with its contents, but he found fairly quickly the address he wanted--that of a Spanish merchant at Seville.
Taking out the block, which he always carried about with him, from his pocket, he carefully copied on it the address in question. Then he turned over the thin pages of the little black book till he came to another address. This time it was the name of a Frenchman, Jules Boutet, who lived in the Haute Ville, Boulogne. He put this name down, too, but he did not trouble about Boutet"s address. Finally he placed the book back in the safe, among the private papers which Polly never disturbed.
Then, tearing off the top sheet of the block, he wrote the Spanish address out, and under it, "Father can come back on or about August 19.
Boutet is expecting him."
He hesitated for some time over the signature. And then, at last, he put the English Christian name of "Emily."
He pushed the book back, well out of sight, then shutting the safe hastened downstairs again.
At any moment Polly might return home; they were early folk at the Deanery.
Anna had already got up. "I think I must be going home," she observed.
"My ladies will soon be back. I do not like them to find the house empty--though Mrs. Otway knows that I am here."
"Do you ever have occasion to go to the Post Office?" he said thoughtfully.
And she answered, "Yes; I have a Savings Bank account. Do you advise me, Mr. Hegner, to take my money out of the Savings Bank just now? Will they not be taking all the money for the war?"
"I think I should take it out. Have you much in?" As he spoke, he was filling up a foreign telegraph form, printing the words in.
"Not very much," she said cautiously. "But a little sum--yes."
"How much?"
She hesitated uncomfortably. "I have forty pounds in the English Savings Bank," she said.
"If I were you"--he looked at her fixedly--"I should take it all out.
Make them give it you in sovereigns. And then, if you will bring it to me here, I shall be able to give you for that--let me see----" he waited a moment. "Yes, if you do not mind taking bank-notes and silver, I will give you for that gold of yours forty pounds and five shillings. Gold is useful to me in my business. Oh--and, Frau Bauer? When you do go to the Post Office I should be glad if you would send off this telegram for me.
It is a business telegram, as you can see, in fact a code telegram."
She took the piece of paper in her hand, then looked at it and at him, uncomprehendingly.
"It concerns a consignment of bitter oranges. I do not want the Witanbury Post Office to know my business."
"Yes, I understand what you mean."
"It is, as you see, a Spanish telegram, and it will cost"--he made a rapid calculation, then went to the sideboard and took out some silver. "It will cost five-and-sixpence. I therefore give you seven-and-sixpence, Frau Bauer. That is two shillings for your trouble.
If possible, I should prefer that no one sees this telegram being despatched. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, yes. I quite understand."
"And if you are asked who gave it you to despatch, say it is a Mrs.