“That,” said Polly, “is allowing for the profit we should certainly have made on the articles those wretches stole out of the windows. I think it’s fair to do that, don’t you, Mrs. Bauer?”
“Indeed yes—that thoroughly to agree I do!” exclaimed Anna.
And then rather sharply, perhaps a trifle anxiously, Alfred Head leant over to his visitor, and looking at her very straight, he said, “And do you bring any news to-night? Not that there ever seems any good news now—and the other sort we can do without.”
She understood that this was Mr. Head’s polite way of asking why she had come this evening, without an invitation. Hurriedly she answered, “No news of any special kind I have—though much that me concerns. Along to ask your advice I came. Supper require I do not.”
“Oh, but you must stop and have supper with us—with me I mean,” said Polly eagerly, “for Alfred is going out—aren’t you, Alfred?”
He hesitated a moment. “I shall see about doing that. There is no hurry. Well, what is it you want to ask me, Mrs. Bauer?”
At once Anna plunged into her woes, disappointment, and fears. Now that the excitement and pride induced by the Address had gone from his face, Alfred Head looked anxious and uneasy; but on hearing Anna’s great piece of news he looked up eagerly.
“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?”