“Do not trouble to look at them now,” he added hastily. “You can take them home with you. Mrs. Otway, she is too broad-minded a lady to mind, is she not?”
“Ach! Yes indeed,” said Anna. “Mrs. Otway, she loves the Fatherland. This foolish trouble makes not the slightest difference to her.”
Polly had been standing by rather impatiently. “Sometimes I’m quite sorry I haven’t taken the trouble to learn German,” she said.
Her husband chucked her under the chin. “How would Frau Bauer and I ever be able to talk our secrets together if you understood what we said, little woman?”
And Anna joined in the laugh with which this sally was greeted.
“So long!” said Polly brightly. “I expect I’ll be back before you’ve gone, Mrs. Bauer.”
CHAPTER XIII
“There is good news!” exclaimed Anna’s host, as soon as the door was shut behind his wife. “The British have sunk one of our little steamers, but we have blown up one of theirs—a very big, important war-vessel, Frau Bauer!”
Good old Anna’s face beamed. It was not that she disliked England—indeed, she was very fond of England. But she naturally felt that in this great game of war it was only right and fair that the Fatherland should win. It did not occur to her, and well he knew it would not occur to her, that the man who had just spoken was at any rate nominally an Englishman. She, quite as much as he did himself, regarded the naturalisation certificate as a mere matter of business. It had never made any difference to any of the Germans Anna had known in England—in fact the only German-Englishman she knew was old Fröhling, who had never taken out his certificate at all. Fröhling really did adore England, and this had sometimes made old Anna feel very impatient. To Fröhling everything English was perfect, and he had been quite pleased, instead of sorry, when his son had joined the British Army.
“So? That is good!” she exclaimed. “Very good! But we must not seem too pleased, must we, Herr Hegner?”