Mr. and Mrs. Hegner stood together in their brilliantly lighted but now
empty front shop. In a few minutes their guests would begin to arrive.
Mrs. Hegner looked tired, and rather cross, for the shop had not been
transformed into its present state without a good deal of hard work on
the part of all of them, her husband, their German assistants, and
herself--their English shopman had been told that to-night his services
would not be required. But Mrs. Hegner, though her pretty face was tired
and peevish-looking, yet looked far pleasanter than she had done half an
hour ago, for her husband had just presented her with a long gold chain.
In a very, very quiet way, quite under the rose, so to speak, Mr. Hegner
sometimes went in for small money-lending transactions. He would give
loans on jewellery, and even on "curios" and good furniture; always,
however, in connection with an account which had, maybe, run a little
too long--never as a separate transaction. The old-fashioned chain of
18-carat gold, which he had just hung with a joking word round his
pretty wife's slender neck, had been the outcome of one of these minor
activities.
It was now a quarter to nine; and suddenly there came the sound of loud,
rather impatient knocking on the locked and barred front door of the
shop. A frown gathered over Mr. Hegner's face; it transformed his
good-looking, generally genial, countenance into something which was,
for the moment, very disagreeable.
"What can that be?" he said to his wife. "Did you not put plainly on
every card 'Entrance by Market Row,' Polly?"
"Yes," she said, a little frightened by his look. "It was most carefully
put in every case, Manfred."
The knocking had stopped now, as if the person outside expected the door
to open. Husband and wife went forward.
"Who can it be?" said Mrs. Hegner uneasily.
And then her question was answered.
The voice was clear and silvery. "It's Miss Haworth! Can I come in and
speak to you a moment, Mr. Hegner, or has the meeting already begun?"
"Why, it's the young lady from the Deanery!" exclaimed Manfred Hegner in
a relieved voice; and both he and his wife began hastily unlocking and
unbarring the great plate-glass doors.
The unbidden, unexpected visitor stepped forward into the shop, and Mrs.
Hegner eagerly noted the cut and shape of the prettily draped pale blue
silk evening coat, and tried to gain some notion of the evening gown
beneath.
"I'm so glad to be in time--I mean before your meeting has begun. How
very nice it all looks!" The speaker cast an approving glance on the
rout chairs, on the table at the top of the room, on the counter where
steamed, even now, the fragrant coffee. "The Dean has asked me to bring
a message--of course quite an informal message, Mr. Hegner. He wants
you to tell everybody that he is quite at their service if they want
anything done."
"That is very, very good of Mr. Dean. Polly, d'you hear that? Is not 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 to
Harwich. I expect they'll have been able to get a boat there all
right----" She stopped suddenly, for her husband had just made a
terrible face at her--a face full of indignation and wrath.
But Miss Haworth did not seem to have noticed anything.
"Oh, well," she said, "perhaps it was a mistake to do that, but I don't
suppose it matters much, one way or the other. I must go now. The
meeting is due to begin, isn't it? And--and Sir Hugh is leaving
to-night. He expects to find his marching orders when he gets back to
town." A little colour came into her charming face; she sighed, but not
very heavily. "War is an awful thing!" she said; "but every soldier, of
course, wants to see _something_ of the fighting. I expect the feeling
is just as strong in France and Germany as it is here."
She shook hands warmly with Mr. and Mrs. Hegner, then she turned and
tripped out into the dimly lighted and solitary Market Square. They
watched her cross the road and take her lover's arm.
"Fool!" said Mr. Hegner harshly. "Pretty, silly fool!" He mimicked what
he thought to be her mincing accents. "Wants to see something of war,
does he? I can tell him he will be satisfied before he has done!" There
was a scowl on his face. "And you"--he turned on his wife
furiously--"what business had you to say that about those young German
men? I was waiting--yes, with curiosity--to hear what else you were
going to tell her--whether you would tell her that I had paid their
fares!"
"Oh, no, Manfred. You know I would never have done that after what you
said to me yesterday."
"Take it from me now, once for all," he said fiercely, "that you say
nothing--_nothing_, mark you--about this cursed, blasted war--this war
which, if we are not very careful, is going to make us poor, to bring us
to the gutter, to the workhouse, you and I!"
And then Hegner's brow cleared as if by enchantment, for the first of
their visitors were coming through from the back of the shop.
It was the manager of a big boot factory and his wife. They were both
German-born, and the man had obtained his present excellent position
owing to the good offices of Mr. Hegner. Taking his friend's wise
advice, he had become naturalised a year ago. But a nephew, who had
joined him in business, had not followed his example, and he had been
one of the young men who had been speeded off to Harwich, through Mr.
Hegner's exertions, early that morning.
While Mrs. Hegner tried to make herself pleasant to Mrs. Liebert, Mr.
Hegner took Mr. Liebert aside.
"I have just learnt," he said, in a quick whisper, "that the military
gentlemen here _are_ expecting marching orders to the Continent--I
presume to Belgium."
"That is bad," muttered the other.
But Mr. Hegner smiled. "No, no," he said, "not bad! It might have been
disagreeable if they could have been got there last week. But by the
time the fifty thousand, even the hundred thousand, English soldiers are
in Belgium, there will be a million of our fellows there to meet them."
"What are you going to say at this meeting?" asked the other curiously;
he used the English word, though they still spoke German.
Mr. Hegner shrugged his shoulders. "This is not going to be a meeting,"
he said laughingly. "It's going to be a Kaffeeklatch! Those people to
whom I have to say a word I shall see by myself, in our little parlour.
I trust to you, friend Max, to make everything go well and lively. As to
measures, it is far too early to think of any measures. So far all goes
very well with me. I have had many tokens of sympathy and of friendship
this morning. Just two or three, perhaps, would have liked to be
disagreeable, but they did not dare."
He hurried away, for his guests were arriving thick and fast.
* * * * *
It was a strange and, or so Mrs. Otway would have thought, a rather
pathetic little company of men and women, who gathered together at
Manfred Hegner's Stores at nine o'clock on that fine August night. The
blinds had been drawn down, and behind the blinds the shutters had been
put up.
As to the people there, they all looked prosperous and respectable, but
each one wore a slight air of apprehension and discomfort. Strange to
say, not one of the Germans present really liked or trusted their host,
and that was odd, for Manfred Hegner, apart from certain outstanding
exceptions, had managed to make himself quite popular among the English
inhabitants of Witanbury.
The men and the women had instinctively parted into two companies, but
Mrs. Hegner went to and fro among both sets, pressing hospitably on all
her guests the coffee, the creamy milk, and the many cakes, to say
nothing of the large sandwiches she had been ordered to make that
afternoon.
She felt oppressed and rather bewildered, for the people about her were
all talking German, and she had never taken the trouble to learn even
half a dozen words of her husband's difficult nasal language. She kept
wondering when the meeting would begin. Time was going on. They always
got up very early in the morning, and already she was tired, very, very
tired in fact, for it had been a long and rather an exciting day.
She had never before seen her husband quite so pleasant and jovial, and
as she moved about she heard continually his loud, hearty laugh. He was
cheering up the people round him--so much was clear. All of them had
looked gloomy, preoccupied, and troubled when they came in, but now they
seemed quite merry and bright.
There was one exception. Poor Mr. Fröhling looked very miserable. Mrs.
Hegner felt very sorry for Mr. and Mrs. Fröhling. When her husband had
heard of what had befallen the unfortunate barber, and how he had been
ordered to pack up and leave his shop within a few hours, he had said
roughly: "Fröhling is a fool! I told him to take out his certificate. He
refused to do it, so now of course he will have to go. Witanbury has no
use for that man!"
And now Mr. and Mrs. Fröhling, alone of the company there, sat together
apart, with lowering brows.
Mrs. Hegner went up to them, rather timidly. "I want to tell you how
sorry I am, Mr. Fröhling," she said conciliatingly. Polly had a kind
heart, if a pettish manner. "What a pity you didn't take out your
certificate when Manfred advised you to do so!"
Mr. Fröhling remained silent. But his wife said wistfully, "Ach, yes,
Mrs. Hegner. It is a pity now; but still, the officers they have been
kind to us, really very kind. One of them even said it would not have
made much difference----"
Her husband interrupted her. "He nothing, Jane, said of the kind! That
it _ought_ not any difference to have made was what say he did. I, who
have in England lived since the year 1874; I, who England love; I, whose
son will soon for England be fighting!"
"My husband said," began Mrs. Hegner---- And again Mr. Fröhling
interrupted rather rudely: "You need not tell me what your husband say,"
he remarked. "I know for myself exactly what Mr. Hegner say. If
everything could be foreseen in this life we should all be very wise.
Mr. Hegner, he does foresee more than most people, and wise he is."
Mrs. Fröhling drew her hostess a little aside. "Don't mind him," she
whispered. "He is so unhappy. And yet we should be thankful, for the
gentlemen officers are getting up a little testimonial fund for poor
Fröhling."
"I suppose you've saved a good bit, too?" said Mrs. Hegner with
curiosity.
"Not much--not much! Only lately have we turned the corner----" Mrs.
Fröhling sighed. Then her face brightened, and Mrs. Hegner looking round
saw that Anna Bauer, Mrs. Otway's servant, was pushing her way through
the crowd towards them.
Now pretty Polly disliked the old woman. Frau Bauer was not a person of
any account, yet Manfred had ordered that she should be treated this
evening with special consideration, and so Mrs. Hegner walked forward
and stiffly shook hands with her latest guest.