Good Old Anna Part 33

For a few minutes things had looked very ugly. A good deal of damage was done, for instance, to the boot factory, which was still being managed (and very well managed too) by a naturalised German and his son. Then the rioters had turned their attention to the Witanbury Stores. "The Kaiser," as Alfred Head was still called by his less kindly neighbours, had always been disliked in the poorer quarters of the town, and that long before the War. Now was the time for paying off old scores. So the plate-gla.s.s windows were shivered with a will, as well as with pickaxes; and all the goods, mostly consisting of bacon, b.u.t.ter, and cheese, which had dressed those windows, had been taken out, thrown among the rioters, and borne off in triumph. It was fortunate that no damage had been done there to life or limb.

Alfred Head had fled at once to the highest room in the building. There he had stayed, locked in, cowering and shivering, till the police, strongly reinforced by soldiers, had driven the rioters off.

Polly at first had stood her ground. "Cowards! Cowards!" she had cried, bravely rushing into the shop; and it was no thanks to the rioters that she had not been very roughly handled indeed. Luckily the police just then had got in by the back of the building, and had dragged her away.

Even into the quiet Close there had penetrated certain ominous sounds indicative of what was going on in the Market Place. And poor old Anna had gone quite white, or rather yellow, with fright.

By the next morning the cold fit had succeeded the hot fit, and all Witanbury was properly ashamed of what had happened. The cells under the Council Chamber were fuller than they had ever been, and no one could be found to say a good word for the rioters.

As for Dr. Haworth, he was cut to the heart by what had occurred, and it became known that he had actually offered the hospitality of the Deanery to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Head, even to sending his own carriage for them--or so it was averred. Gratefully had they accepted his kindness; and though Alfred Head was now back in his place of business, trying to estimate the damage and to arrange for its being made good, Polly was remaining on at the Deanery for a few hours.

But those two days, which will be always remembered by the people of the cathedral city as having witnessed the one War riot of Witanbury, were to have very different a.s.sociations for Mrs. Otway and her daughter, Rose Blake. For on the morning of the 26th a telegram arrived at the Trellis House containing the news that at last the exchange of disabled prisoners had been arranged, and that Major Guthrie's name was in the list of those British officers who might be expected back from Germany, _via_ Holland, within the next forty-eight hours.

And, as if this was not joy enough, Sir Jacques, on the same day, told his young friends that now at last the time had come when they might go off, alone together, to the little house, within sound of the sea, which an old friend of Lady Blake had offered to lend them for Jervis's convalescence--and honeymoon.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Anna was hurrying through the quiet streets of Witanbury on her way to Mr. Head's Stores.

As she walked along, looking neither to the right nor to the left, for she had of late become unpleasantly conscious of her alien nationality, she pondered with astonishment and resentment the events of the last two days--the receipt of a telegram by Mrs. Otway, and its destruction, or at any rate its disappearance, before she, Anna, could learn its contents; and, evidently in consequence of the telegram, her mistress's hurried packing and departure for London.

Then had followed a long, empty day, the old woman's feelings of uneasiness and curiosity being but little relieved by Rose's eager words, uttered late on the same evening: "Oh, Anna, didn't mother tell you the great news? Major Guthrie is coming home. She has gone up to meet him!" The next morning Mrs. Jervis Blake herself had gone to London, this being the first time she had left her husband since their marriage.

There had come another day of trying silence for Anna, and then a letter from Rose to her old nurse. It was a letter which contained astounding news. Mrs. Otway was coming back late to-night, and was to be married--_married_, to-morrow morning in the Cathedral, to Major Guthrie!

The bride-elect sent good old Anna her love, and bade her not worry.

Of all the injunctions people are apt to give one another, perhaps the most cruel and the most futile is that of not to worry. Mrs. Otway had really meant to be kind, but her message gave Anna Bauer a most unhappy day. The old German woman had long ago made up her mind that when it suited herself she would leave the Trellis House, but never, never had it occurred to her that anything could happen which might compel her to do so.

At last, when evening fell, she felt she could no longer bear her loneliness and depression. Also she longed to tell her surprising news to sympathetic ears.

All through that long day Anna Bauer had been making up her mind to go back to Germany. She knew that there would be no difficulty about it, for something Mrs. Otway had told her a few weeks ago showed that many German women were going home, helped thereto by the British Government.

As for Willi and Minna, however bitterly they might feel towards England, they would certainly welcome her when they realised how much money, all her savings, she was bringing with her.

As she walked quickly along--getting very puffy, for she was stout and short of breath--it seemed to her as if the kindly old city, where she had lived in happiness and amity for so many years, had changed in character. She felt as if the windows of the houses were frowning down at her, and as if cruel pitfalls yawned in her way.

Her depression was increased by her first sight of the building for which she was bound, for, as she walked across the Market Place, she saw the boarded up shop-front of the Stores. "Mr. Head hoped to get the plate-gla.s.s to-morrow"--so the boy who had brought the b.u.t.ter and eggs that morning had exclaimed--"but just now there was a great shortage of that particular kind of shop-front gla.s.s, as it was mostly made in Belgium."

Meanwhile the Witanbury Stores presented a very sorry appearance--the more so that some evilly disposed person had gone in the dark, after the boarding had been put up, and splashed across the boards a quant.i.ty of horrid black stuff!

Anna hurried round to the back door. In answer to her ring, the door was opened at last a little way, and Polly's pretty, anxious face looked out cautiously. But when she saw who it was, she smiled pleasantly.

"Oh, come in, Mrs. Bauer! I'm glad to see you. You'll help me cheer poor Alfred up a bit. Not but what he ought to be happy now--for what d'you think happened at three o'clock to-day? Why, the Dean himself came along and left a beautiful letter with us--an Address, _he_ called it." She was walking down the pa.s.sage as she spoke, and when she opened the parlour door she called out cheerfully, "Here's Mrs. Bauer come to see us! I tell her she'll have to help cheer you up a bit."

And truth to tell Alfred Head did look both ill and haggard--but no, not unhappy. Even Anna noticed that there was a gleam of triumph in his eyes. "Very pleased to see you, I'm sure!" he exclaimed cordially. "Yes, it is as Polly says--out of evil good has come to us. See here, my dear friend!"

Anna came forward. She already felt better, less despondent, but it was to Polly she addressed her condolences. "What wicked folk in this city there are!" she exclaimed. "Even Mr. Robey to me says, 'Dastardly conduct!'"

"Yes, yes," said Polly hastily. "It was _dreadful_! But look at this, Mrs. Bauer----" She held towards Anna a large sheet of thick, fine cream-laid paper. Across the top was typed--

"TO ALFRED HEAD, CITY COUNCILLOR OF WITANBURY."

Then underneath, also in typewriting, the following words:

"We the undersigned, your fellow-countrymen and fellow-citizens of Witanbury, wish to express to you our utter abhorrence and sense of personal shame in the dastardly attack which was made on your house and property on March 25, 1915.

As a small token of regard we desire to inform you that we have started a fund for compensating you for any material loss you may have incurred which is not covered by your plate-gla.s.s insurance."

There followed, written in ink, a considerable number of signatures.

These were headed by the Dean, and included the names of most of the canons and minor canons, four Dissenting ministers, and about a hundred others belonging to all cla.s.ses in and near the cathedral city.

True, there were certain regrettable omissions, but fortunately neither Mr. and Mrs. Head nor Anna seemed aware of it. One such omission was that of the Catholic priest. Great pressure had been brought to bear on him, but perhaps because there was little doubt that members of his congregation had been concerned in the outrage, he had obstinately refused to sign the Address. More strange and regrettable was the fact that Miss Forsyth's name was also omitted from the list. In answer to a personal appeal made to her by the Dean, who had himself gone to the trouble of calling in order to obtain her signature, she had explained that she never did give her signature. She had made the rule thirty years ago, and she saw no reason for breaking it to-day.

Anna looked up from the paper, and her pale blue, now red-rimmed, eyes sparkled with congratulation. "This is good!" she exclaimed in German.

"Very, very good!"

Her host answered in English, "Truly I am gratified. It is a compensation to me for all I have gone through these last few days."

"Yes," said Polly quickly. "And as you see, Mrs. Bauer, we are to be really compensated. We were thinking only yesterday that the damage done--I mean the damage by which we should be out of pocket--was at least 15. But, as Alfred says, that was putting it very low. He thinks, and I quite agree--don't you, Mrs. Bauer?--that it would be fair to put the damage down at--let me see, what did you say, Alfred?"

"According to my calculation," he said cautiously, "I think we may truly call it twenty-seven pounds ten shillings and ninepence."

"That," said Polly, "is allowing for the profit we should certainly have made on the articles those wretches stole out of the windows. I think it's fair to do that, don't you, Mrs. Bauer?"

"Indeed yes--that thoroughly to agree I do!" exclaimed Anna.

And then rather sharply, perhaps a trifle anxiously, Alfred Head leant over to his visitor, and looking at her very straight, he said, "And do you bring any news to-night? Not that there ever seems any good news now--and the other sort we can do without."

She understood that this was Mr. Head's polite way of asking why she had come this evening, without an invitation. Hurriedly she answered, "No news of any special kind I have--though much that me concerns. Along to ask your advice I came. Supper require I do not."

"Oh, but you must stop and have supper with us--with me I mean," said Polly eagerly, "for Alfred is going out--aren't you, Alfred?"

He hesitated a moment. "I shall see about doing that. There is no hurry.

Well, what is it you want to ask me, Mrs. Bauer?"

At once Anna plunged into her woes, disappointment, and fears. Now that the excitement and pride induced by the Address had gone from his face, Alfred Head looked anxious and uneasy; but on hearing Anna's great piece of news he looked up eagerly.

"Mrs. Otway and this Major Guthrie to be married at the Cathedral to-morrow? But this is very exciting news!" he exclaimed. "D'you hear that, Polly? I think we must go to this ceremony. It will be very interesting----" his eyes gleamed; there was a rather wolfish light in them. "The poor gentleman is blind, is he? It is lucky he will not see how old his bride looks----" he added a word or two in German.

Anna shrank back, and, speaking German too, she answered, "Mrs. Otway has a very young face, and when not unhappy, she is very bright and lively. For my part, I think this Major a very-much-to-be-envied man!"

Her loyalty to the woman who had been kind and good to her over so many years awakened, tardily.