"Mrs. Otway and this Major Guthrie to be married at the Cathedral to-morrow? But this is very exciting news!" he exclaimed. "D'you hear that, Polly? I think we must go to this ceremony. It will be very interesting----" his eyes gleamed; there was a rather wolfish light in them. "The poor gentleman is blind, is he? It is lucky he will not see how old his bride looks----" he added a word or two in German. Anna shrank back, and, speaking German too, she answered, "Mrs. Otway has a very young face, and when not unhappy, she is very bright and lively. For my part, I think this Major a very-much-to-be-envied man!" Her loyalty to the woman who had been kind and good to her over so many years awakened, tardily. "No doubt, no doubt," said Alfred Head carelessly. "But now I suppose you are thinking of yourself, Frau Bauer?" Polly broke in: "Do talk in English," she said pettishly. "You can't think how tiresome it is to hear that rook's language going on all the time!" Her husband laughed. "Well, I suppose this marriage will make a difference to you?" he said in English. "A difference?" exclaimed Anna ruefully. "Why, my good situation me it loses. Home to the Fatherland my present idea is----" her eyes filled with big tears. Her host looked at her thoughtfully. What an old fool she was! But that, from his point of view, was certainly not to be regretted. She had served his purpose well--and more than once. "Mrs. Otway she a friend has who a German maid had. The maid last week to Holland was sent, so no trouble can there be. However, one thing there is----" she looked dubiously at Polly. "Mrs. Head here knows, does she, about my----?" And then at once between Alfred Head's teeth came the angry command, in her own language, to speak German. She went on eagerly, fluently now: "You will understand, Mr. Head, that I cannot behave wrongly to my dear nephew Willi's superior. I have been wondering to-night whether I could hand the affair over to you. After all, a hundred marks a year are not to be despised in these times. You yourself say that after the War the money will be made up----" she looked at him expectantly. He said rather quickly to his wife, "Look here, Polly! Never mind this--it's business you wouldn't understand!" And his wife shrugged her shoulders. She didn't care what the old woman was saying to Alfred. She supposed it was something about the War--the War of which she was so heartily sick, and which had brought them, personally, such bad luck. "It is difficult to decide such a thing in a hurry," said Alfred Head slowly.