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."