Marie Belloc Lowndes

Good Old Anna Marie Belloc Lowndes

AND now," asked Miss Forsyth thoughtfully, "and now, my dear Mary, what, may I ask, areyou going to do about your good old Anna?""Do about Anna?" repeated the other. "I don't quite understand what you mean."In her heart Mrs. Otway thought she understood very well what her old friend, MissForsyth, meant by the question. For it was Wednesday, the 5th of August, 1914. Englandhad just declared war on Germany, and Anna was Mrs. Otway's faithful, highly valuedGerman servant. Miss Forsyth was one of those rare people who always require an answer to a question, and who also (which is rarer still) seldom speak without having first thought out what theyare about to say. It was this quality of mind, far more than the fact that she had been born, sixty years ago, in the Palace at Witanbury, which gave her the position she held in thesociety of the cathedral town. But this time she herself went on speaking: "In your place I should think very seriously ofsending Anna back to Germany." There was an unusual note of hesitation and of doubt inher voice. As a rule Miss Forsyth knew exactly what she thought about everything, andwhat she herself would be minded to do in any particular cas