“Is that another warning?” Philip asked.

“Perhaps.”

“Anyway, you think Petronius is good?”

She nodded her head emphatically.

“Come, you shall give a judgment on Aristophanes. I commend him to you in the same series of French translations.”

“I think Lysistrata is simply splendid,” Sylvia said, a week or so later. “And I like the Thesmos-something and the Eck-something.”

“I thought you might,” Philip laughed. “But don’t quote from them when my millionaire tenant comes to tea.”

“Don’t be always harping upon the dangers of my conversation,” she exhorted.

“Mayn’t I even tease you?” Philip asked, in mock humility.

“I don’t mind being teased, but it isn’t teasing. It’s serious.”