Yes, life went on quite curiously as usual during the second week of the
Great War, and to many of the more well-to-do people of Witanbury, only
brought in its wake a series of agreeable "thrills" and mild
excitements.
Of course this was not quite the case with the inmates of the Trellis
House. Poor old Anna, for instance, very much disliked the process of
Registration. Still, it was made as easy and pleasant to her as
possible, and Mrs. Otway and Rose both accompanied her to the police
station. There, nothing could have been more kindly than the manner of
the police inspector who handed Anna Bauer her "permit." He went to some
trouble in order to explain to her exactly what it was she might and
might not do.
As Anna seldom had any occasion to travel as far as five miles from
Witanbury Close, her registration brought with it no hardship at all.
Still, she was surprised and hurt to find herself described as "an enemy
alien." She could assure herself, even now, that she had no bad feelings
against England--no, none at all!
Though neither her good faithful servant nor her daughter guessed the
fact, Mrs. Otway was the one inmate of the Trellis House to whom the
War, so far, brought real unease. She felt jarred and upset--anxious,
too, as she had never yet been, about her money matters.
More and more she missed Major Guthrie, and yet the thought of him
brought discomfort, almost pain, in its train. With every allowance
made, he was surely treating her in a very cavalier manner. How odd of
him not to have written! Whenever he had been away before, he had always
written to her, generally more than once; and now, when she felt that
their friendship had suddenly come closer, he left her without a line.
Her only comfort, during those strange days of restless waiting for news
which never came, were her daily talks with the Dean. Their mutual love
and knowledge of Germany had always been a strong link between them, and
it was stronger now than ever.
Alone of all the people she saw, Dr. Haworth managed to make her feel at
charity with Germany while yet quite confident with regard to her
country's part in the War. He did not say so in so many words, but it
became increasingly clear to his old friend and neighbour, that the Dean
believed that the Germans would soon be conquered, on land by Russia and
by France, while the British, following their good old rule, would
defeat them at sea.
Many a time, during those early days of war, Mrs. Otway felt a thrill of
genuine pity for Germany. True, the Militarist Party there deserved the
swift defeat that was coming on them; they deserved it now, just as the
French Empire had deserved it in 1870, though Mrs. Otway could not
believe that modern Germany was as arrogant and confident as had been
the France of the Second Empire.
Much as she missed Major Guthrie, she was sometimes glad that he was not
there to--no, not to crow over her, he was incapable of doing that, but
to be proved right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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