day Letty was to be sent home. She had had no communication
with Susie since that angry lady's departure. To Peter she had written,
explaining her plans and her reasons, and her hopes and yearnings, and
had received a hasty scrawl in reply dated from Estcourt, conveying his
blessing on herself and her scheme. "Susie came straight down here," he
wrote, "because of the Alderton wedding to which she was not asked, and
went to bed. You know, my dear little sister, anything that makes you
happy contents me. I wish you could have seen your way to benefiting
reduced English ladies, for you are a long way off; but of course you
have the house free over there. Don't let Miss Leech leave you till you
are perfectly satisfied with your companion. Yesterday I landed the
biggest----" etc. In a word, Peter, in accordance with his invariable
custom, was on her side.

The day before Frau von Penheim was to arrive, Susie's answer to Anna's
letter came. Here it is:--

"DEAR ANNA,--Your letter surprised me, though I might have known by
now what to expect of you.--Still, I was surprised that you should
not even offer to make the one return in your power for all I have
done for you. As I feel I have a right to some return I don't
hesitate to tell you that I think you ought to keep Letty for a
year or two, or even longer. Even if you kept her till she is
eighteen, and dressed her and fed her (don't feed her too much), it
would only be four years; and what are four years I should like to
know, compared to the fifteen I had you on my hands? I was talking
to Herr Schumpf about her the other day--his bills were so absurd
that I made him take something off--and he said by all means let
her stay in Germany. Everybody speaks German nowadays, and Letty
will pick it up at once in that awful place of yours. I was so ill
when I got back that I went to Estcourt, and had to stay in bed for
days, the doctor coming every day, and sometimes twice. He said he
didn't wonder, when I told him all I had gone through. Peter was
quite sorry for me. Send Miss Leech back. Give her a month's notice
for me the day you get this, and see if you can't find some German
who will go to your place--I can't remember its wretched name
without looking in my address book--and give Letty lessons every
day. The rest of the time she can talk German to your twelve
victims.