t the
Reverend gentleman truly good?"

"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Hegner, a trifle mechanically.

She felt a touch of sharp envy as she looked at the beautiful girl
standing there. Though Edith Haworth knew very little of Mrs. Hegner,
except that Mrs. Hegner's sister was her maid, Mrs. Hegner knew a great
deal about Miss Haworth. How she had gone up to London just for one
month of the season, and how during that one month she had become
engaged to a rich young gentleman, a baronet. He was in the Army, too,
but he couldn't be much of a soldier, for he seemed to be a great deal
in Witanbury--at least he had been here a great deal during the last
three weeks. The two often walked about the town together; once they had
stood for quite a long time just opposite the open doors of the Stores,
and Mrs. Hegner on that occasion had looked at the handsome couple with
sympathetic interest and excitement.

But now, to-night, nothing but sharp envy filled her soul. It was her
fate, poor, pretty Polly's fate, to sit behind that horrid glass
partition over there, taking money, paying out endless small change,
compelled always to look pleasant, or Manfred, if he caught her looking
anything else, even when giving a farthing change out of a penny, would
soon know the reason why! The young lady who stood smiling just within
the door was not half as "fetching" as she, Polly, had been in her
maiden days--and yet she was going to have everything the heart of woman
could desire, a rich, handsome, young husband, and plenty of money!

As her eyes strayed out to the moonlit space outside where stood
waiting, under the quaint little leafy mall which gives the Market
Square of Witanbury such a foreign look, a gentleman in evening dress,
Mrs. Hegner repeated mechanically, "Very kind, I'm sure, miss. They'll
appreciate it--that they will."

"Well, that was all I came to say--only that my father will be very glad
indeed to do anything he can. Oh, I did forget one more thing----" She
lowered her voice a little. "The Dean thinks it probable, Mr. Hegner,
that after to-day no German of military age will be allowed to leave
England. You ought to tell everybody that this evening, otherwise some
of them, without knowing it, might get into trouble."

And then Mrs. Hegner, perhaps because she had become nervously aware
that her husband had looked at her rather crossly a moment ago, blurted
out, "There's no fear of that, miss. We sent off a lot this morning