ive at all;
but I told him where we did live, when Dad was alive.

"Ah," he said, "that is in Sussex. Very pretty just there. Which
house was your home?"

I stared a little, for it seemed waste of time to describe it, but I
said it was an old house on an open green.

"Yes," he said, nodding, "on the common. A very nice, roomy old house,
with good outbuildings. But why do you not straighten out those
corners on the road to Petworth? They are death traps."

"You've been there, then?" I said, astonished at the extreme smallness
of the world.

"Never," he said, laughing. "But I study. We study, don't we, Inster
my boy, at the old General Staff. And tell your Sussex County Council,
beautiful English lady, to straighten out those corners, for they are
very awkward indeed, and might easily cause serious accidents some day
when the roads have to be used for real traffic."

"It is very good of you," I said politely, "to take such an interest in
us."

"I not only take the greatest interest in you, charming young lady, and
in your country, but I have an orderly mind and would be really pleased
to see those corners straightened out. Use your influence, which I am
sure must be great, with that shortsighted body of gentlemen, your
County Council."

"I shall not fail," I said, more politely than ever, "to inform them of
your wishes."

"Ah, but she is delightful,--delightful, your little _Englanderin_," he
said gaily to Frau Bornsted, who listened to his _badinage_ with grave
and respectful indulgence; and he said a lot more things about England
and its products and exports, meaning compliments to me--what can he be
like after dinner?--and went off, jovial to the last, clicking his
heels and kissing first Frau Bornsted's hand and then mine, in spite,
as he explained, of its being against the rules to kiss the hand of a
_junges Madchen_, but his way was never to take any notice of rules, he
said, if they got between him and a charming young lady. And so he
went off, waving his green hat to us and calling out _Auf Wiedersehen_
till the forest engulfed him.

Herr von Inster and the Graf went too, but quietly. The Graf went
exceedingly quietly. He hadn't said a word to anybody, as far as I
could see, and no rallyings on the part of the Colonel could make him.
He didn't even react to being told what I gather is the German
equivalent for a sly dog.

Herr von Inster said, when he could get a word in, that he is comi