'Oh, for heaven's sake, my child, burn the letters! I daresay it won't be difficult; they are probably all flames already.' 'I did have one lovely letter,' said Edith. She took it out of her dress. He glanced at it. 'Mon Dieu! To think that a pupil of mine drives about in a taxi-cab with compromising letters in her pocket! Non, tu est folle, veritablement, Edith.' To please him she threw it into the fire, after tearing a small blank piece of the paper off, and putting this unwritten-on scrap back in the bodice of her dress. As she hurried away, she again promised him not to undertake anything, nor to allow Aylmer to overpower her prudent intention during their drive. 'What time do you start? I think I shall come too,' said Sir Tito, pretending to look at his engagement-book. He burst out laughing at her expression. 'Ah, I'm not wanted! Tiens! If you're not very careful _one_ person will go with you, I can tell you. And that will be Madame Frabelle.' 'No, she won't. Indeed not! It's the last day of Archie's holidays.' 'He's coming with you?' 'On the front seat, with the chauffeur,' said Edith. There was a ring at the bell. He lifted the curtain and caressingly but firmly pushed her through into the other room. * * * * * Sir Tito had another appointment. CHAPTER XXII While this drama was taking place in the little house in Sloane Street, Madame Frabelle, who lived for romance, and was always imagining it where it didn't exist, was, of course, sublimely unconscious of its presence. She had grown tired of her fancy about Edith and Mr Mitchell, or she made herself believe that her influence had stopped it. But she was beginning to think, much as she enjoyed her visit and delighted in her surroundings, that it was almost time for her at least to _suggest_ going away. She had made Edith's friends her own. She was devoted to Edith, fonder of the children than anyone except their grandmother, and strangely, considering she was a visitor who gave trouble, she was adored by the servants and by everyone in the house, with the single exception of Archie. She was carrying on a kind of half-religious flirtation with the Rev. Byrne Fraser, who was gradually succeeding in making her very high church. Sometimes she rose early and left the house mysteriously. She went to Mass. There was a dreamy expression in her eyes when she came back. A slight perfume of incense, instead of the lavender water that she formerly affected, was now observable about her. She went to see the 'London Group' and the 'New English' with young Coniston, who explained to her all he had learnt from Aylmer, a little wrong; while she assured him that she knew nothing about pictures, but she knew what she liked.