"Everything," he said. "I've had a notice forbidding changes of name altogether. Everyone has had it."
"When did you get it?" his wife inquired with a flutter.
"To-day."
"Then it's all right," she said excitedly. "We made the change several days ago."
"Yes," replied her husband, "but the notice goes on to say that everyone who has changed since the war began must revert to the name he had before the war commenced. You can't get away from that."
"But we paid for it," Mrs. Bannockburn exclaimed. "We paid for it. Why did they take our money?"
"They didn't know then," said her lord. "It's only just decided by this infernal Government."
Mrs. Bannockburn turned white. "This is terrible," she said. "And how unfair! How grossly unfair! It's not as if we were Germans. I'm not a German at all, and you are merely a German's son, and British to the core. Of course they'll give the money back?"
"It says nothing about that," replied the Briton.
"How very unlike England!" she said.