In an instant Letty's unnatural cheerfulness about her lessons flashed across her. _What_ had they been doing, and where was Miss Leech, that such things could happen? It was a very terrible, stern-browed aunt who met Letty that day on the stairs when she came home. "Hullo, Aunt Anna, seen a ghost?" Letty inquired pleasantly; but her heart sank into her boots all the same as she followed her into her room. "Look," said Anna, showing her the paper, "how could you do it? For of course you did it. Herr Klutz doesn't speak English." "Doesn't he though--he gets on like anything. He sits up all night----" "How is it that _this_ was possible?" interrupted Anna, striking the paper with her hand. "It's pretty, isn't it," said Letty, faintly grinning. "The last line had to be changed a little. It isn't original, you know, except the Annas. I put in those. That footman mother got cheap because he had one finger too few sent it to Hilton on her birthday last year--she liked it awfully. The last line was 'Oh Hilton, Hilton, Hilton----'" "_How_ came you to talk such hideous nonsense with Herr Klutz, and about me?" "I didn't. He began. He talked about you the whole time, and started doing it the very first day Leechy cooked." "Cooked?" "She is always in the kitchen with Frau Manske. We brought you some of the cakes one day, and you seemed as pleased as anything." "And instead of learning German you and he have been making up this sort of thing?" Anna's voice and eyes frightened Letty. She shifted from one foot to the other and looked down sullenly. "What's the good of being angry?" she said, addressing the carpet; "it's only Mr. Jessup over again. Leechy wasn't angry with Mr. Jessup. She was frightfully pleased. She says it's the greatest compliment a person can pay anybody, going on about them like Herr Klutz does, and talking rot." Anna stared at her, bewildered. "Mr. Jessup?" she repeated. "And do you mean to tell me that Miss Leech knows of this--this disgusting nonsense?" She held the mangled heart at arm's length, crushing it in her hand. "I say, you'll spoil it. He worked at it for days. There weren't any paints red enough for the wound, and he had to go to Stralsund on purpose. He thought no end of it." And Letty, scared though she was, could not resist giggling a little. "Do you mean to tell me that Miss Leech knows about this?" insisted Anna. "Rather not. It's a secret. He made me promise faithfully never to tell a soul. Of course it doesn't matter talking to you, because you're one of the persons concerned. You can't be married, you know, without knowing about it, so I'm not breaking my promise talking to you----" "Married? What unutterable rubbish have you got into your head?" "That's what I said--or something like it. I said it was jolly rot. He said, 'What's rot?' I said 'That.'" "But what?" asked Anna angrily. She longed to shake her.