"And of course there's no doubt that I _should_ disgrace you. I probably shall now as a matter of fact. Mabel will be rather sorry," she went on, pensively. "She likes me to be there at night in case she gets frightened. She told me once that the only reason she ever went wrong was because she was frightened to sleep alone. She was married to a commercial traveler, who, of course, was just the worst person she could have married, because he was always leaving her alone. Poor Mabel!" Philip took her hand again and said in a tone of voice which she resented as adumbrating already, however faintly, a hint of ownership: "Sylvia dear, you won't talk so freely as that in the school, will you? Promise me you won't." "But it used to amuse you when I talked like that," she said. "You mustn't think now that you've got the right to lecture me." "My dear child, it doesn't matter what you say to me; I understand. But some people might not." "Well, don't say I didn't warn you," she almost sighed. CHAPTER VI Miss Ashley's school for young ladies, situated in its own grounds on Campden Hill, was considered one of the best in England; a day or two after they got back from Oxford, Philip announced to Sylvia that he was glad to say Miss Ashley would take her as a pupil. She was a friend of his family; but he had sworn her to secrecy, and it had been decided between them that Sylvia should be supposed to be an orphan educated until now in France. "Mayn't I tell the other girls that I've been an odalisque?" Sylvia asked. "Good heavens! no!" said Philip, earnestly. "But I was looking forward to telling them," she explained. "Because I'm sure it would amuse them." Philip smiled indulgently and thought she would find lots of other ways of amusing them. He had told Miss Ashley, who, by the way, was an enthusiastic rationalist, that he did not want her to attend the outward shows of religion, and Miss Ashley had assented, though as a schoolmistress she was bound to see that her other pupils went to church at least once every Sunday. He had reassured her about the bad example Sylvia would set by promising to come himself and take her out every Sunday in his capacity as guardian. "You'll be glad of that, won't you?" he asked, anxiously. "I expect so," Sylvia said. "But of course I may find being at school such fun that I sha'n't want to leave it."