d a good bit, too?" said Mrs. Hegner with
curiosity.

"Not much--not much! Only lately have we turned the corner----" Mrs.
Froehling sighed. Then her face brightened, and Mrs. Hegner looking round
saw that Anna Bauer, Mrs. Otway's servant, was pushing her way through
the crowd towards them.

Now pretty Polly disliked the old woman. Frau Bauer was not a person of
any account, yet Manfred had ordered that she should be treated this
evening with special consideration, and so Mrs. Hegner walked forward
and stiffly shook hands with her latest guest.

CHAPTER VII

"Sit down, Froehling, sit down!"

The old barber, rather to his surprise, had been invited to follow his
host into the Hegners' private parlour, a little square room situated
behind the big front shop.

The floor of the parlour was covered with a large-patterned oilcloth.
There was a round mahogany pedestal table, too large for the room, and
four substantial cane-backed armchairs. Till to-day there had always
hung over the piano a large engraving of the German Emperor, and on the
opposite wall a smaller oleograph picture of Queen Victoria with her
little great-grandson, the Prince of Wales, at her knee. The German
Emperor had now been taken down, and there was a patch of clean paper
marking where the frame had hung.

As answer to Mr. Hegner's invitation, the older man sat down heavily in
a chair near the table.

Both men remained silent for a moment, and a student of Germany, one who
really knew and understood that amazing country, might well, had he seen
the two sitting there, have regarded the one as epitomising the old
Germany, and the other--naturalised Englishman though he now
was--epitomising the new. Manfred Hegner was slim, active, and
prosperous-looking; he appeared years younger than his age. Ludwig
Froehling was stout and rather stumpy; he seemed older than he really
was, and although he was a barber, his hair was long and untidy. He
looked intelligent and thoughtful, but it was the intelligence and the
thoughtfulness of the student and of the dreamer, not of the man of
action.

"Well, Mr. Froehling, the International haven't done much the last few
days, eh? I'm afraid you must have been disappointed." He of course
spoke in German.

"Yes, I _have_ been disappointed," said the other stoutly, "very much
disappointed indeed! But still, from this great crime good may come,
even now. It has occurred to me that, owing to this war made by t