would have brought a smile, now it brought a furrow of pain to the
English lady's kindly face.

Poor Manfred Hegner! What must he and thousands of others like
him--excellent, industrious, civil-spoken Germans--feel all through
England to-day? Mrs. Otway, who had always liked the man, and who
enjoyed her little chats with him, knew perhaps rather more about this
prosperous tradesman than most of the Witanbury people knew. She was
aware that he had been something of a rolling stone; he had, for
instance, been for quite a long time in America, and it was there that
he had shed most of his Germanisms of language. He was older than he
looked, and his son by a first marriage lived in Germany--where,
however, the young man was buyer for a group of English firms who did a
great deal of business in cheap German-made goods.

His conversation with the odd-looking stranger over, Mr. Hegner hurried
back to where his valued customer was standing. "Every one on the City
Council is being most kind," he said suavely. "And last night I had the
honour of meeting the Dean. At his suggestion I am calling a little
meeting this evening, here in my Stores, of the non-naturalised Germans
of this town. There are a good many in Witanbury."

And then Mrs. Otway suddenly remembered that the man now standing
opposite to her was a member of the City Council. She remembered that
some time ago, three or four years back at least, some disagreeable
person had expressed indignation that an ex-German, one only just
naturalised, should be elected to such a body. She had thought the
speaker narrow-minded and ill-natured. An infusion of German
thoroughness and thrift would do the City Council good, and perhaps keep
down the rates!

"But you, Mr. Hegner, have been naturalised quite a long time," she said
sympathetically.

"Yes, indeed, gracious lady!" Mr. Hegner seemed surprised, perhaps a
thought disturbed, by her natural remark. "I took out my certificate
before I built the Stores, and just after I had married my excellent
little English wife. Glad indeed am I now that I did so!"

"I am very glad too," said Mrs. Otway. And yet--and yet she felt a
slight quiver of discomfort. The man standing there was so _very_ German
after all--German not only in his appearance, but in all his little
ways! If nothing else had proved it, his rather absurd nickname was
clear proof that so he was even now regarded in Witanbury.

"And how about your son, Mr. Hegner?"