“Then the best thing will be for your visitor to come during the marriage ceremony. That marriage will draw away all the busybodies. And it is not as if your visitor need stay long——”
“Not more than a very few minutes,” she said eagerly, and then, “Will it be the same gentleman who came three years ago?”
“Oh, no; it will be someone quite different. He will come in a motor, and I expect a Boy Scout will be with him.”
A gleam of light shot across Anna’s mind. But she made no remark, and her host went on:
“You realise that great care must be taken of those things. In fact, you had better leave it all to him.”
“Oh, yes,” she nodded understandingly. “I know they are fragile. I was told so.”
It was extraordinary the relief she felt—more than relief, positive joy.
“As to the other matter—the matter of your returning to Germany,” he said musingly, still speaking in his and her native language, “I think, yes, on the whole your idea is a good one, Frau Bauer. It is shameful that it should be so, but England is no place at present for an honest German woman who has not taken out her certificate. I wonder if you are aware that you will only be allowed to take away a very little money? You had better perhaps confide the rest of your savings to me. I will take care of them for you till the end of the War.”
“Very little money?” repeated Anna, in a horrified, bewildered tone. “What do you mean, Herr Hegner? I do not understand.”
“And yet it is clear enough,” he said calmly. “The British Government will not allow anyone going to the Fatherland to take more than a very few pounds—just enough to get them where they want to go, and a mark or two over. But that need not distress you, Frau Bauer.”