Good Old Anna

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 case. But the other lady, incensed at what she considered uncalled-for, even ratherimpertinent advice, replied sharply, "I shouldn't think of doing anything so unkind and sounjust! Why, because the powers of evil have conquered-I mean by that the dreadfulGerman military party-should I behave unjustly to a faithful old German woman who hasbeen with me-let me see-why, who has been with me exactly eighteen years? With theexception of a married niece with whom she went and stayed in Berlin three autumns ago, my poor old Anna hasn't a relation left in Germany. Her whole life is centred in me-orperhaps I ought to say in Rose. She was the only nurse Rose ever had.""And yet she has remained typically German," observed Miss Forsyth irrelevantly."Of course she has!" cried Mrs. Otway quickly. "And that is why we are both so muchattached to her. Anna has all the virtues of the German woman; she is faithful, kindly, industrious, and thrifty.""But, Mary, has it not occurred to you that you will find it very awkward sometimes?"Again without waiting for an answer, Miss Forsyth went on: "Our working people have longfelt it very hard that there should be so many Germans in England, taking away their jo