And he trusted that Madame Fournier would see the necessity of a
decisive separation between them.

Madame did see the necessity. With Mr. Fairfax's letter came to her
hand another, a letter from the "youth" himself, but addressed to his
dear Bessie. That it should ever reach her was improbable. There was the
strictest quarantine for letters in the Rue St. Jean. Even letters to
and from parents passed through madame's private office. She opened and
read Harry Musgrave's as an obvious necessity, smiled over its boyish
exaggeration, and relished its fun at her own expense, for madame was a
woman of wisdom and humor. Little by little she had learnt the whole of
Bessie's life and conversation from her own lips; and she felt that
there was nothing to be feared from a lover of young Musgrave's type,
unless he was set on mischief by the premature interposition of
obstacles, of which this denial to Bessie of her Christmas holiday was
an example.

However, madame had not to judge, but to act. She returned Harry
Musgrave his letter, with a polite warning that such a correspondence
with a girl at school was silly and not to be thought of. Harry blushed
a little, felt foolish, and put the document into the fire. Madame made
him confess to himself that he had gone to Caen as much for bravado as
for love of Bessie. Bessie never knew of the letter, but she cherished
her pretty romance in her heart, and when she was melancholy she thought
of the garden at Brook, and of the beeches by the stream where they had
sat and told their secrets on their farewell afternoon; and in her
imagination her dear Harry was a perfect friend and lover.

* * * * *