As her eyes strayed out to the moonlit space outside where stood waiting, under the quaint little leafy mall which gives the Market Square of Witanbury such a foreign look, a gentleman in evening dress, Mrs. Hegner repeated mechanically, "Very kind, I'm sure, miss. They'll appreciate it--that they will." "Well, that was all I came to say--only that my father will be very glad indeed to do anything he can. Oh, I did forget one more thing----" She lowered her voice a little. "The Dean thinks it probable, Mr. Hegner, that after to-day no German of military age will be allowed to leave England. You ought to tell everybody that this evening, otherwise some of them, without knowing it, might get into trouble." And then Mrs. Hegner, perhaps because she had become nervously aware that her husband had looked at her rather crossly a moment ago, blurted out, "There's no fear of that, miss. We sent off a lot this morning to Harwich. I expect they'll have been able to get a boat there all right----" She stopped suddenly, for her husband had just made a terrible face at her--a face full of indignation and wrath. But Miss Haworth did not seem to have noticed anything. "Oh, well," she said, "perhaps it was a mistake to do that, but I don't suppose it matters much, one way or the other. I must go now. The meeting is due to begin, isn't it? And--and Sir Hugh is leaving to-night. He expects to find his marching orders when he gets back to town." A little colour came into her charming face; she sighed, but not very heavily. "War is an awful thing!" she said; "but every soldier, of course, wants to see _something_ of the fighting. I expect the feeling is just as strong in France and Germany as it is here." She shook hands warmly with Mr. and Mrs. Hegner, then she turned and tripped out into the dimly lighted and solitary Market Square. They watched her cross the road and take her lover's arm. "Fool!" said Mr. Hegner harshly. "Pretty, silly fool!" He mimicked what he thought to be her mincing accents. "Wants to see something of war, does he? I can tell him he will be satisfied before he has done!" There was a scowl on his face. "And you"--he turned on his wife furiously--"what business had you to say that about those young German men? I was waiting--yes, with curiosity--to hear what else you were going to tell her--whether you would tell her that I had paid their fares!" "Oh, no, Manfred. You know I would never have done that after what you said to me yesterday." "Take it from me now, once for all," he said fiercely, "that you say nothing--_nothing_, mark you--about this cursed, blasted war--this war which, if we are not very careful, is going to make us poor, to bring us to the gutter, to the workhouse, you and I!" And then Hegner's brow cleared as if by enchantment, for the first of their visitors were coming through from the back of the shop.