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diff --git a/old/14395.txt b/old/14395.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6e53d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14395.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10711 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimus, by William J. Locke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Septimus + +Author: William J. Locke + +Release Date: December 20, 2004 [EBook #14395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEPTIMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +SEPTIMUS + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + +IDOLS +JAFFERY +VIVIETTE +SEPTIMUS +DERELICTS +THE USURPER +STELLA MARIS +WHERE LOVE IS +THE ROUGH ROAD +THE MOUNTEBANK +THE RED PLANET +THE WHITE DOVE +FAR-AWAY STORIES +THE GREAT PANDOLFO +SIMON THE JESTER +THE COMING OF AMOS +THE TALE OF TRIONA +A STUDY IN SHADOWS +A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY +THE WONDERFUL YEAR +THE HOUSE OF BALTAZAR +THE FORTUNATE YOUTH +THE BELOVED VAGABOND +AT THE GATE OF SAMARIA +THE GLORY OF CLEMENTINA +THE MORALS OF MARCUS ORDEYNE +THE DEMAGOGUE AND LADY PHAYRE +THE JOYOUS ADVENTURES OF ARISTIDE PUJOL + + + + +SEPTIMUS + +BY +WILLIAM J. LOCKE + + + + +NEW YORK +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY +1931 + + + + +Copyright, 1908 +By The Phillips Publishing Company + +Copyright, 1909 +By Dodd, Mead & Company + + + +Printed in U.S.A. + +The Vail-Ballou Press +Binghamton and New York + + + + +RUTGER BLEECKER JEWETT + +CARO SEPTIMI +AUCTORISQUE AMICO HIC LIBER +SEPTIMI INSCRIBITUR + + + + +SEPTIMUS + +CHAPTER I + + +"I love Nunsmere," said the Literary Man from London. "It is a spot where +faded lives are laid away in lavender." + +"I'm not a faded life, and I'm not going to be laid away in lavender," +retorted Zora Middlemist. + +She turned from him and handed cakes to the Vicar. She had no desire to pet +the Vicar, but he was less unbearable than the Literary Man from London +whom he had brought to call on his parishioners. Zora disliked to be called +a parishioner. She disliked many things in Nunsmere. Her mother, Mrs. +Oldrieve, however, loved Nunsmere, adored the Vicar, and found +awe-inspiring in his cleverness the Literary Man from London. + +Nunsmere lies hidden among the oaks of Surrey, far from the busy ways of +men. It is heaven knows how many miles from a highroad. You have to drive +through lanes and climb right over a hill to get to it. Two old Georgian +houses covered with creepers, a modern Gothic church, two much more +venerable and pious-looking inns, and a few cottages settling peacefully +around a common form the village. Here and there a cottage lurks up a lane. +These cottages are mostly inhabited by the gentle classes. Some are really +old, with great oak beams across the low ceilings, and stone-flagged +kitchens furnished with great open fireplaces where you can sit and get +scorched and covered with smoke. Some are new, built in imitation of the +old, by a mute, inglorious Adam, the village carpenter. All have long +casement windows, front gardens in which grow stocks and phlox and +sunflowers and hollyhocks and roses; and a red-tiled path leads from the +front gate to the entrance porch. Nunsmere is very quiet and restful. +Should a roisterer cross the common singing a song at half-past nine at +night, all Nunsmere hears it and is shocked--if not frightened to the +extent of bolting doors and windows, lest the dreadful drunken man should +come in. + +In a cottage on the common, an old one added to by the local architect, +with a front garden and a red-tiled path, dwelt Mrs. Oldrieve in entire +happiness, and her daughter in discontent. And this was through no peevish +or disagreeable traits in Zora's nature. If we hear Guy Fawkes was fretful +in the Little-Ease, we are not pained by Guy Fawkes's lack of Christian +resignation. + +When the Vicar and the Literary Man from London had gone, Zora threw open +the window and let the soft autumn air flood the room. Mrs. Oldrieve drew +her woolen shawl around her lean shoulders. + +"I'm afraid you quite snubbed Mr. Rattenden, just when he was saying one of +his cleverest things." + +"He said it to the wrong person, mother. I'm neither a faded life nor am I +going to be laid away in lavender. Do I look like it?" + +She moved across the room, swiftly, and stood in the slanting light from +the window, offering herself for inspection. Nothing could be less like a +faded life than the magnificent, broad-hipped, full-bosomed woman that met +her mother's gaze. Her hair was auburn, her eyes brown with gold flecks, +her lips red, her cheeks clear and young. She was cast, physically, in +heroic mold, a creature of dancing blood and color and warmth. Disparaging +tea-parties called her an Amazon. The Vicar's wife regarded her as too +large and flaring and curvilinear for reputable good looks. She towered +over Nunsmere. Her presence disturbed the sedateness of the place. She was +a wrong note in its harmony. + +Mrs. Oldrieve sighed. She was small and colorless. Her husband, a wild +explorer, a tornado of a man, had been killed by a buffalo. She was afraid +that Zora took after her father. Her younger daughter Emmy had also +inherited some of the Oldrieve restlessness and had gone on the stage. She +was playing now in musical comedy in London. + +"I don't see why you should not be happy here, Zora," she remarked, "but if +you want to go, you must. I used to say the same to your poor, dear +father." + +"I've been very good, haven't I?" said Zora. "I've been the model young +widow and lived as demurely as if my heart were breaking with sorrow. But +now, I can't stand it any longer. I'm going out to see the world." + +"You'll soon marry again, dear, and that's one comfort." + +Zora brought her hands down passionately to her sides. + +"Never. Never--do you hear, mother? Never. I'm going out into the world, to +get to the heart of the life I've never known. I'm going to live." + +"I don't see how you are going to 'live,' dear, without a man to take care +of you," said Mrs. Oldrieve, on whom there occasionally flashed an eternal +verity. + +"I hate men. I hate the touch of them--the very sight of them. I'm going to +have nothing more to do with them for the rest of my natural life. My dear +mother!" and her voice broke, "haven't I had enough to do with men and +marriage?" + +"All men aren't like Edward Middlemist," Mrs. Oldrieve argued as she +counted the rows of her knitting. + +"How am I to know that? How could anyone have told that he was what he was? +For heaven's sake don't talk of it. I had almost forgotten it all in this +place." + +She shuddered and, turning to the window, stared into the sunset. + +"Lavender has its uses," said Mrs. Oldrieve. + +Here again it must be urged on Zora's behalf that she had reason for her +misanthropy. It is not cheerful for a girl to discover within twenty-four +hours of her wedding that her husband is a hopeless drunkard, and to see +him die of delirium tremens within six weeks. An experience so vivid, like +lightning must blast something in a woman's conception of life. Because one +man's kisses reeked of whisky the kisses of all male humanity were +anathema. + +After a long spell of silence she came and laid her cheek against her +mother's. + +"This is the very last time we'll speak of it, dear. I'll lock the skeleton +in its cupboard and throw away the key." + +She went upstairs to dress and came down radiant. At dinner she spoke +exultingly of her approaching freedom. She would tear off her widow's weeds +and deck herself in the flower of youth. She would plunge into the great +swelling sea of Life. She would drink sunshine and fill her soul with +laughter. She would do a million hyperbolic things, the mention of which +mightily confused her mother. "I, my dear," said the hen in the fairy tale, +"never had the faintest desire to get into water." So, more or less, said +Mrs. Oldrieve. + +"Will you miss me very dreadfully?" asked Zora. + +"Of course," but her tone was so lacking in conviction that Zora laughed. + +"Mother, you know very well that Cousin Jane will be a more sympathetic +companion. You've been pining for her all this time." + +Cousin Jane held distinct views on the cut of under-clothes for the +deserving poor, and as clouds disperse before the sun so did household dust +before her presence. Untidiness followed in Zora's steps, as it does in +those of the physically large, and Cousin Jane disapproved of her +thoroughly. But Mrs. Oldrieve often sighed for Cousin Jane as she had never +sighed for Zora, Emily, or her husband. She was more than content with the +prospect of her companionship. + +"At any rate, my dear," she said that evening, as she paused, candle in +hand, by her bedroom door, "at any rate I hope you'll do nothing that is +unbecoming to a gentlewoman." + +Such was her benison. + +Zora bumped her head against the oak beam that ran across her bedroom +ceiling. + +"It's quite true," she said to herself, "the place is too small for me, I +don't fit." + + * * * * * + +What she was going to do in this wide world into whose glories she was +about to enter she had but the vaguest notion. All to her was the Beautiful +Unknown. Narrow means had kept her at Cheltenham and afterwards at +Nunsmere, all her life. She had met her husband in Ipswich while she was +paying a polite visit to some distant cousins. She had married him offhand, +in a whirl of the senses. He was a handsome blackguard, of independent +means, and she had spent her nightmare of a honeymoon at Brighton. On three +occasions, during her five-and-twenty years of existence, she had spent a +golden week in London. That was all she knew of the wide world. It was not +very much. Reading had given her a second-hand acquaintance with the doings +of various classes of mankind, and such pictures as she had seen had filled +her head with dreams of strange and wonderful places. But otherwise she was +ignorant, beautifully, childishly ignorant--and undismayed. + +What was she going to do? Sensitive and responsive to beauty, filled with +artistic impulses, she could neither paint, act, sing, nor write pretty +little stories for the magazines. She had no special gift to develop. To +earn her living in a humdrum way she had no need. She had no high Ibsenite +notions of working out her own individuality. She had no consuming passion +for reforming any section of the universe. She had no mission--that she +knew of--to accomplish. Unlike so many of her sex who yearn to be as men +and go out into the world she had no inner mandate to do anything, no +ambition to be anything. She was simply a great, rich flower, struggling +through the shade to the sunlight, plenty of sunlight, as much sunlight as +the heavens could give her. + +The Literary Man from London happened to be returning to town by the train +that carried Zora on the first stage of her pilgrimage. He obtained her +consent to travel up in the same carriage. He asked her to what branch of +human activity she intended to devote herself. She answered that she was +going to lie, anyhow, among the leaves. He rebuked her. + +"We ought," said he, "to justify our existence." + +She drew herself up and flashed an indignant glance at him. + +"I beg your pardon," he apologized. "You do justify yours." + +"How?" + +"You decorate the world. I was wrong. That is the true function of a +beautiful woman, and you fulfill it." + +"I have in my bag," replied Zora slowly, and looking at him steady-eyed, "a +preventive against sea-sickness; I have a waterproof to shelter me from +rain; but what can I do to shield myself against silly compliments?" + +"Adopt the costume of the ladies of the Orient," said the Literary Man from +London, unabashed. + +She laughed, although she detested him. He bent forward with humorous +earnestness. He had written some novels, and now edited a weekly of +precious tendencies and cynical flavor. + +"I am a battered old man of thirty-five," said he, "and I know what I am +talking about. If you think you are going to wander at a loose end about +Europe without men paying you compliments and falling in love with you and +making themselves generally delightful, you're traveling under a grievous +hallucination." + +"What you say," retorted Zora, "confirms me in my opinion that men are an +abominable nuisance. Why can't they let a poor woman go about in peace?" + +The train happened to be waiting at Clapham Junction. A spruce young man, +passing by on the platform, made a perceptible pause by the window, his +eyes full on her. She turned her head impatiently. Rattenden laughed. + +"Dear lady," said he, "I must impart to you the elements of wisdom. Miss +Keziah Skaffles, with brain cordage for hair, and monoliths for teeth, and +a box of dominoes for a body, can fool about unmolested among the tribes +of Crim Tartary. She doesn't worry the Tartars. But, permit me to say it, +as you are for the moment my disciple, a beautiful woman like yourself, +radiating feminine magnetism, worries a man exceedingly. You don't let him +go about in peace, so why should he let you?" + +"I think," said Zora, as the train moved on, "that Miss Keziah Skaffles is +very much to be envied, and that this is a very horrid conversation." + +She was offended in her provincial-bred delicacy. It was enough to make her +regard herself with repulsion. She took up the fashion paper she had bought +at the station--was she not intending to run delicious riot among the +dressmakers and milliners of London?--and regarding blankly the ungodly +waisted ladies in the illustrations, determined to wear a wig and paint her +face yellow, and black out one of her front teeth, so that she should not +worry the Tartars. + +"I am only warning you against possible dangers," said Rattenden stiffly. +He did not like his conversation to be called horrid. + +"To the race of men?" + +"No, to yourself." + +She laughed scornfully. "No fear of that. Why does every man think himself +irresistible?" + +"Because he generally is--if he wants to be," said the Literary Man from +London. + +Zora caught her breath. "Well of all--" she began. + +"Yes, I know what you're going to say. Millions of women have said it and +eaten their words. Why should you--beautiful as you are--be an exception to +the law of life? You're going out to suck the honey of the world, and +men's hearts will be your flowers. Instinct will drive you. You won't be +able to get away from it. You think you're going to be thrilled into +passionate raptures by cathedrals and expensive restaurants and the set +pieces of fashionable scenery. You're not. Your store of honey will consist +of emotional experiences of a primitive order. If not, I know nothing at +all about women." + +"Do you know anything about them?" she asked sweetly. + +"More than would be becoming of me to tell," he replied. "Anyhow," he +added, "that doesn't matter. I've made my prophecy. You'll tell me +afterwards, if I have the pleasure of seeing you again, whether it has come +true." + +"It won't come true," said Zora. + +"We shall see," said the wise man. + +She dashed, that afternoon, into her sister's tiny flat in Chelsea. Emily, +taken by surprise, hastily stuffed to the bottom of her work-basket a man's +silk tie which she was knitting, and then greeted Zora affectionately. + +She was shorter, slimmer, paler than her sister: of a certain babyish +prettiness. She had Mrs. Oldrieve's weak mouth and gentle ways. + +"Why, Zora, who would have thought of seeing you? What are you doing in +town?" + +"Getting hats and frocks--a trousseau of freedom. I've left Nunsmere. I'm +on my own." + +Her eyes sparkled, her cheeks were flushed. She caught Emily to her bosom. + +"Oh, darling! I'm so happy--a bird let out of a cage." + +"An awful big bird," laughed Emily. + +"Yes, let out of an awful small cage. I'm going to see the world, for the +first time in my life. I'm going to get out of the cold and wet--going +South--to Italy--Sicily--Egypt--anywhere." + +"All by yourself?" + +"There'll be Turner." + +"Turner?" + +"Ah, you don't know her. My new maid. But isn't it glorious? Why shouldn't +you come with me, darling? Do. Come." + +"And throw up my engagement? I couldn't. I should love it, but you don't +know how hard engagements are to get." + +"Never mind. I'll pay for everything." + +But Emily shook her fluffy head. She had a good part, a few lines to speak +and a bit of a song to sing in a successful musical comedy. She looked back +on the two years' price she had paid for that little bit of a song. It was +dearer to her than anything--save one thing--in life. + +"I can't. Besides, don't you think a couple of girls fooling about alone +look rather silly? It wouldn't really be very funny without a man." + +Zora rose in protest. "The whole human race is man-mad! Even mother. I +think everybody is detestable!" + +The maid announced "Mr. Mordaunt Prince," and a handsome man with finely +cut, dark features and black hair parted in the middle and brushed tightly +back over the head, entered the room. Emmy presented him to Zora, who +recognized him as the leading man at the theater where Emmy was playing. +Zora exchanged a few polite commonplaces with the visitor and then took her +leave. Emmy accompanied her to the front door of the flat. + +"Isn't he charming?" + +"That creature?" asked Zora. + +Emmy laughed. "In your present mood you would find fault with an +archangel. Good-bye, darling, and take care of yourself." + +She bore no malice, having a kind heart and being foolishly happy. When she +returned to the drawing-room the man took both her hands. + +"Well, sweetheart?" + +"My sister wanted to carry me off to Italy." + +"What did you say?" + +"Guess," said the girl, lifting starry eyes. + +The man guessed, after the manner of men, and for a moment Emmy forgot +Zora, who went her own way in pursuit of happiness, heedless of the wisdom +of the wise and of the foolish. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +For five months Zora wandered over the world--chiefly Italy--without an +experience which might be called an adventure. When the Literary Man from +London crossed her mind she laughed him to scorn for a prophetic popinjay. +She had broken no man's heart, and her own was whole. The tribes of Crim +Tartary had exhibited no signs of worry and had left her unmolested. She +had furthermore taken rapturous delight in cathedrals, expensive +restaurants, and the set pieces of fashionable scenery. Rattenden had not a +prophetic leg to stand on. + +Yet she longed for the unattainable--for the elusive something of which +these felicities were but symbols. Now the wanderer with a haunting sense +of the Beyond, but without the true vagabond's divine gift of piercing the +veil, can only follow the obvious; and there are seasons when the obvious +fails to satisfy. When such a mood overcame her mistress, Turner railed at +the upsetting quality of foreign food, and presented bicarbonate of soda. +She arrived by a different path at the unsatisfactory nature of the +obvious. Sometimes, too, the pleasant acquaintances of travel were lacking, +and loneliness upset the nice balance of Zora's nerves. Then, more than +ever, did she pine for the Beyond. + +Yet youth, receptivity, imagination kept her buoyant. Hope lured her on +with renewed promises from city to city. At last, on her homeward journey, +he whispered the magic name of Monte Carlo, and her heart was aflutter in +anticipation of wonderland. + +She stood bewildered, lonely, and dismayed in the first row behind the +chairs, fingering an empty purse. She had been in the rooms ten minutes, +and she had lost twenty louis. Her last coup had been successful, but a +bland old lady, with the white hair and waxen face of sainted motherhood, +had swept up her winnings so unconcernedly that Zora's brain began to swim. +As she felt too strange and shy to expostulate she stood fingering her +empty purse. + +The scene was utterly different from what she had expected. She had +imagined a gay, crowded room, wild gamblers shouting in their excitement, a +band playing delirious waltz music, champagne corks popping merrily, +painted women laughing, jesting loudly, all kinds of revelry and devilry +and Bacchic things undreamed of. This was silly of her, no doubt, but the +silliness of inexperienced young women is a matter for the pity, not the +reprobation, of the judicious. If they take the world for their oyster and +think, when they open it, they are going to find pearl necklaces +ready-made, we must not blame them. Rather let hoary-headed sinners envy +them their imaginings. + +The corners of Zora Middlemist's ripe lips drooped with a child's pathos of +disillusionment. Her nose delicately marked disgust at the heavy air and +the discord of scents around her. Having lost her money she could afford to +survey with scorn the decorous yet sordid greed of the crowded table. There +was not a gleam of gaiety about it. The people behaved with the correct +impassiveness of an Anglican congregation. She had heard of more jocular +funerals. + +She forgot the intoxication of her first gold and turquoise day at Monte +Carlo. A sense of loneliness--such as a solitary dove might feel in a +wilderness of evil bats--oppressed her. Had she not been aware that she +was a remarkably attractive woman and the object of innumerable glances, +she would have cried. And twenty louis pitched into unprofitable space! Yet +she stood half fascinated by the rattle of the marble on the revolving +disc, the glitter of the gold, the soft pat of the coins on the green cloth +as they were thrown by the croupier. She began to make imaginary stakes. +For five coups in succession she would have won. It was exasperating. There +she stood, having pierced the innermost mystery of chance, without even a +five-franc piece in her purse. + +A man's black sleeve pushed past her shoulder, and she saw a hand in front +of her holding a louis. Instinctively she took it. + +"Thanks," said a tired voice. "I can't reach the table. She threw it, _en +plein_, on Number Seventeen; and then with a start, realizing what she had +done, she turned with burning cheeks. + +"I _am_ so sorry." + +Her glance met a pair of unspeculative blue eyes, belonging to the owner of +the tired voice. She noted that he had a sallow face, a little brown +mustache, and a shock of brown hair, curiously upstanding, like Struwel +Peter's. + +"I am _so_ sorry," she repeated. "Please ask for it back. What did you want +me to play?" + +"I don't know. It doesn't matter, so long as you've put it somewhere." + +"But I've put it _en plein_ on Seventeen," she urged. "I ought to have +thought what I was doing." + +"Why think?" he murmured. + +Mrs. Middlemist turned square to the table and fixed her eyes on the staked +louis. In spite of the blue-eyed man's implied acquiescence she felt +qualms of responsibility. Why had she not played on an even chance, or one +of the dozens, or even a _transversale_? To add to her discomfort no one +else played the full seventeen. The whole table seemed silently jeering at +her inexperience. + +The croupiers had completed the payments of the last coup. The marble fell +with its sharp click and whizzed and rattled around the disc. Zora held her +breath. The marble found its compartment at last, and the croupier +announced: + +_"Dix-sept, noir, impair et manque."_ + +She had won. A sigh of relief shook her bosom. Not only had she not lost a +stranger's money, but she had won for him thirty-five times his stake. She +watched the louis greedily lest it should be swept away by a careless +croupier--perhaps the only impossible thing that could not happen at Monte +Carlo--and stretched out her arm past the bland old lady in tense +determination to frustrate further felonious proceedings. The croupier +pitched seven large gold coins across the table. She clutched them +feverishly and turned to deliver them to their owner. He was nowhere to be +seen. She broke through the ring, and with her hands full of gold scanned +the room in dismayed perplexity. + +At last she espied him standing dejectedly by another table. She rushed +across the intervening space and held out the money. + +"See, you have won!" + +"Oh, Lord!" murmured the man, removing his hands from his dinner-jacket +pockets, but not offering to take his winnings. "What a lot of trouble I +have given you." + +"Of course you have," she said tartly. "Why didn't you stay?" + +"I don't know," he replied. "How can one tell why one doesn't do things?" + +"Well, please take the money now and let me get rid of it. There are seven +pieces of five louis each." + +She counted the coins into his hand, and then suddenly flushed scarlet. She +had forgotten to claim the original louis which she had staked. Where was +it? What had become of it? As well try, she thought, to fish up a coin +thrown into the sea. She felt like a thief. + +"There ought to be another louis," she stammered. + +"It doesn't matter," said the man. + +"But it does matter. You might think that I--I kept it." + +"That's too absurd," he answered. "Are you interested in guns?" + +"Guns?" + +She stared at him. He appeared quite sane. + +"I remember now I was thinking of guns when I went away," he explained. +"They're interesting things to think about." + +"But don't you understand that I owe you a louis? I forgot all about it. If +my purse weren't empty I would repay you. Will you stay here till I can get +some money from my hotel--the Hotel de Paris?" + +She spoke with some vehemence. How could the creature expect her to remain +in his debt? But the creature only passed his fingers through his +upstanding hair and smiled wanly. + +"Please don't say anything more about it. It distresses me. The croupiers +don't return the stake, as a general rule, unless you ask for it. They +assume you want to back your luck. Perhaps it has won again. For goodness' +sake don't bother about it--and thank you very, very much." + +He bowed politely and moved a step or two away. But Zora, struck by a +solution of the mystery which had not occurred to her, as one cannot grasp +all the ways and customs of gaming establishments in ten minutes, rushed +back to the other table. She arrived just in time to hear the croupier +asking whom the louis on seventeen belonged to. The number had turned up +again. + +This time she brought the thirty-six louis to the stranger. + +"Dear me," said he, taking the money. "It is very astonishing. But why did +you trouble?" + +"Because I'm a woman of common sense, I suppose." + +He looked at the coins in his hand as if they were shells which a child at +the seaside might have brought him, and then raised his eyes slowly to +hers. + +"You are a very gracious lady." His glance and tone checked an impulse of +exasperation. She smiled. + +"At any rate, I've won fifty-six pounds for you, and you ought to be +grateful." + +He made a little gesture of acknowledgement. Had he been a more dashing +gentleman he might have expressed his gratitude for the mere privilege of +conversing with a gracious lady so beautiful. They had drifted from the +outskirts of the crowded table and found themselves in the thinner crowd of +saunterers. It was the height of the Monte Carlo season and the feathers +and diamonds and rouge and greedy eyes and rusty bonnets of all nations +confused the sight and paralyzed thought. Yet among all the women of both +worlds Zora Middlemist stood out remarkable. As Septimus Dix afterwards +explained, the rooms that evening contained a vague kind of conglomerate +woman and Zora Middlemist. And the herd of men envied the creature on whom +she smiled so graciously. + +She was dressed in black, as became a young widow, but it was a black +which bore no sign of mourning. The black, sweeping ostrich plume of a +picture hat gave her an air of triumph. Black gloves reaching more than +halfway up shapely arms and a gleam of snowy neck above a black chiffon +bodice disquieted the imagination. She towered over her present companion, +who was five foot seven and slimly built. + +"You've brought me all this stuff, but what am I to do with it?" he asked +helplessly. + +"Perhaps I had better take care of it for you." + +It was a relief from the oppressive loneliness to talk to a human being; so +she lingered wistfully in conversation. A pathetic eagerness came into the +man's face. + +"I wish you would," said he, drawing a handful from his jacket pocket. "I +should be so much happier." + +"You can hardly be such a gambler," she laughed. + +"Oh, no! It's not that at all. Gambling bores me." + +"Why do you play, then?" + +"I don't. I staked that louis because I wanted to see whether I should be +interested. I wasn't, as I began to think about the guns. Have you had +breakfast?" + +Again Zora was startled. A sane man does not talk of breakfasting at nine +o'clock in the evening. But if he were a lunatic perhaps it were wise to +humor him. + +"Yes," she said. "Have you?" + +"No. I've only just got up." + +"Do you mean to say you've been asleep all day?" + +"What's the noisy day made for?" + +"Let us sit down," said Zora. + +They found one of the crimson couches by the wall vacant, and sat down. +Zora regarded him curiously. + +"Why should you be happier if I took care of your money?" + +"I shouldn't spend it. I might meet a man who wanted to sell me a +gas-engine." + +"But you needn't buy it." + +"These fellows are so persuasive, you see. At Rotterdam last year, a man +made me buy a second-hand dentist's chair." + +"Are you a dentist?" asked Zora. + +"Lord, no! If I were I could have used the horrible chair." + +"What did you do with it?" + +"I had it packed up and despatched, carriage paid, to an imaginary person +at Singapore." + +He made this announcement in his tired, gentle manner, without the flicker +of a smile. He added, reflectively-- + +"That sort of thing becomes expensive. Don't you find it so?" + +"I would defy anybody to sell me a thing I didn't want," she replied. + +"Ah, that," said he with a glance of wistful admiration, "that is because +you have red hair." + +If any other strange male had talked about her hair, Zora Middlemist would +have drawn herself up in Junoesque majesty and blighted him with a glance. +She had done with men and their compliments forever. In that she prided +herself on her Amazonianism. But she could not be angry with the +inconclusive being to whom she was talking. As well resent the ingenuous +remarks of a four-year-old child. + +"What has my red hair to do with it?" she asked pleasantly. + +"It was a red-haired man who sold me the dentist's chair." + +"Oh!" said Zora, nonplussed. + +There was a pause. The man leaned back, embracing one knee with both hands. +They were nerveless, indeterminate hands, with long fingers, such as are in +the habit of dropping things. Zora wondered how they supported his knee. +For some time he stared into vacancy, his pale-blue eyes adream. Zora +laughed. + +"Guns?" she asked. + +"No," said he, awaking to her presence. "Perambulators." + +She rose. "I thought you might be thinking of breakfast. I must be going +back to my hotel. These rooms are too hot and horrible. Good night." + +"I will see you to the lift, if you'll allow me," he said politely. + +She graciously assented and they left the rooms together. In the atrium she +changed her mind about the lift. She would leave the Casino by the main +entrance and walk over to the Hotel de Paris for the sake of a breath of +fresh air. At the top of the steps she paused and filled her lungs. It was +a still, moonless night, and the stars hung low down, like diamonds on a +canopy of black velvet. They made the flaring lights of the terrace of the +Hotel and Cafe de Paris look tawdry and meretricious. + +"I hate them," she said, pointing to the latter. + +"Stars are better," said her companion. + +She turned on him swiftly. + +"How did you know I was making comparisons?" + +"I felt it," he murmured. + +They walked slowly down the steps. At the bottom a carriage and pair +seemed to rise mysteriously out of the earth. + +"'Ave a drive? Ver' good carriage," said a voice out of the dimness. Monte +Carlo cabmen are unerring in their divination of the Anglo-Saxon. + +Why not? The suggestion awoke in her an instant craving for the true beauty +of the land. It was unconventional, audacious, crazy. But, again, why not? +Zora Middlemist was answerable for her actions to no man or woman alive. +Why not drink a great draught of the freedom that was hers? What did it +matter that the man was a stranger? All the more daring the adventure. Her +heart beat gladly. But chaste women, like children, know instinctively the +man they can trust. + +"Shall we?" + +"Drive?" + +"Yes--unless--" a thought suddenly striking her--"unless you want to go +back to your friends." + +"Good Lord!" said he, aghast, as if she were accusing him of criminal +associations. "I have no friends." + +"Then come." + +She entered the carriage. He followed meekly and sat beside her. Where +should they drive? The cabman suggested the coast road to Mentone. She +agreed. On the point of starting she observed that her companion was +bare-headed. + +"You've forgotten your hat." + +She spoke to him as she would have done to a child. + +"Why bother about hats?" + +"You'll catch your death of cold. Go and get it at once." + +He obeyed with a docility which sent a little tingle of exaltation through +Mrs. Middlemist. A woman may have an inordinate antipathy to men, but she +loves them to do her bidding. Zora was a woman; she was also young. + +He returned. The cabman whipped up his strong pair of horses, and they +started through the town towards Mentone. + +Zora lay back on the cushions and drank in the sensuous loveliness of the +night--the warm, scented air, the velvet and diamond sky, the fragrant +orange groves--the dim, mysterious olive trees, the looming hills, the +wine-colored, silken sea, with its faint edging of lace on the dusky sweep +of the bay. The spirit of the South overspread her with its wings and took +her amorously in its arms. + +After a long, long silence she sighed, remembering her companion. + +"Thank you for not talking," she said softly. + +"Don't," he replied. "I had nothing to say. I never talk. I've scarcely +talked for a year." + +She laughed idly. + +"Why?" + +"No one to talk to. Except my man," he added conscientiously. "His name is +Wiggleswick." + +"I hope he looks after you well," said Zora, with a touch of maternal +instinct. + +"He wants training. That's what I am always telling him. But he can't hear. +He's seventy and stone-deaf. But he's interesting. He tells me about jails +and things." + +"Jails?" + +"Yes. He spent most of his time in prison. He was a professional +burglar--but then he got on in years. Besides, the younger generation was +knocking at the door." + +"I thought that was the last thing a burglar would do," said Zora. + +"They generally use jemmies," he said gravely. "Wiggleswick has given me +his collection. They're very useful." + +"What for?" she asked. + +"To kill moths with," he replied dreamily. + +"But what made you take a superannuated burglar for a valet?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps it was Wiggleswick himself. He came up to me one day +as I was sitting in Kensington Gardens, and somehow followed me home." + +"But, good gracious," cried Zora--forgetful for the moment of stars and +sea--"aren't you afraid that he will rob you?" + +"No. I asked him, and he explained. You see, it would be out of his line. A +forger only forges, a pickpocket only snatches chains and purses, and a +burglar only burgles. Now, he couldn't burgle the place in which he was +living himself, so I am safe." + +Zora gave him sage counsel. + +"I'd get rid of him if I were you." + +"If I were you, I would--but I can't," he replied. "If I told him to go he +wouldn't. I go instead sometimes. That's why I'm here." + +"If you go on talking like that, you'll make my brain reel," said Zora +laughing. "Do tell me something about yourself. What is your name?" + +"Septimus Dix. I've got another name--Ajax--Septimus Ajax Dix--but I never +use it." + +"That's a pity," said Zora. "Ajax is a lovely name." + +He dissented in his vague fashion. "Ajax suggests somebody who defies +lightning and fools about with a spear. It's a silly name. A maiden aunt +persuaded my mother to give it to me. I think she mixed it up with +Achilles. She admired the statue in Hyde Park. She got run over by a +milkcart." + +"When was that?" she inquired, more out of politeness than interest in the +career of Mr. Dix's maiden aunt. + +"A minute before she died." + +"Oh," said Zora, taken aback by the emotionless manner in which he +mentioned the tragedy. Then, by way of continuing the conversation:-- + +"Why are you called Septimus?" + +"I'm the seventh son. All the others died young. I never could make out why +I didn't." + +"Perhaps," said Zora with a laugh, "you were thinking of something else at +the time and lost the opportunity." + +"It must have been that," said he. "I lose opportunities just as I always +lose trains." + +"How do you manage to get anywhere?" + +"I wait for the next train. That's easy. But there's never another +opportunity." + +He drew a cigarette from his case, put it in his mouth, and fumbled in his +pockets for matches. Finding none, he threw the cigarette into the road. + +"That's just like you," cried Zora. "Why didn't you ask the cabman for a +light?" + +She laughed at him with an odd sense of intimacy, though she had known him +for scarcely an hour. He seemed rather a stray child than a man. She longed +to befriend him--to do something for him, motherwise--she knew not what. +Her adventure by now had failed to be adventurous. The spice of danger had +vanished. She knew she could sit beside this helpless being till the day of +doom without fear of molestation by word or act. + +He obtained a light for his cigarette from the cabman and smoked in +silence. Gradually the languor of the night again stole over her senses, +and she forgot his existence. The carriage had turned homeward, and at a +bend of the road, high up above the sea, Monte Carlo came into view, +gleaming white far away below, like a group of fairy palaces lit by fairy +lamps, sheltered by the great black promontory of Monaco. From the gorge on +the left, the terraced rock on the right, came the smell of the wild thyme +and rosemary and the perfume of pale flowers. The touch of the air on her +cheek was a warm and scented kiss. The diamond stars drooped towards her +like a Danae shower. Like Danae's, her lips were parted. Her eyes strained +far beyond the stars into an unknown glory, and her heart throbbed with a +passionate desire for unknown things. Of what nature they might be she did +not dream. Not love. Zora Middlemist had forsworn it. Not the worship of a +man. She had vowed by all the saints in her hierarchy that no man should +ever again enter her life. Her soul revolted against the unutterable sex. + +As soon as one realizes the exquisite humbug of sublunary existence he must +weep for the pity of it. + +The warm and scented air was a kiss, too, on the cheek of Septimus Dix; and +his senses, too, were enthralled by the witchery of the night. But for him +stars and scented air and the magic beauty of the sea were incarnate in the +woman by his side. + +Zora, as I have said, had forgotten the poor devil's existence. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +When they drove up to the Hotel de Paris, she alighted and bade him a +smiling farewell, and went to her room with the starlight in her eyes. The +lift man asked if Madame had won. She dangled her empty purse and laughed. +Then the lift man, who had seen that light in women's eyes before, made +certain that she was in love, and opened the lift door for her with the +confidential air of the Latin who knows sweet secrets. But the lift man was +wrong. No man had a part in her soul's exultation. If Septimus Dix crossed +her mind while she was undressing, it was as a grotesque, bearing the same +relation to her emotional impression of the night as a gargoyle does to a +cathedral. When she went to bed, she slept the sound sleep of youth. + +Septimus, after dismissing the cab, wandered in his vague way over to the +Cafe de Paris, instinct suggesting his belated breakfast, which, like his +existence, Zora had forgotten. The waiter came. + +"_Monsieur desire?_" + +"Absinthe," murmured Septimus absent-mindedly, "and--er--poached eggs--and +anything--a raspberry ice." + +The waiter gazed at him in stupefaction; but nothing being too astounding +in Monte Carlo, he wiped the cold perspiration from his forehead and +executed the order. + +The unholy meal being over, Septimus drifted into the square and spent most +of the night on a bench gazing at the Hotel de Paris and wondering which +were her windows. When she mentioned casually, a day or two later, that +her windows looked the other way over the sea, he felt that Destiny had +fooled him once more; but for the time being he found a gentle happiness in +his speculation. Chilled to the bone, at last, he sought his hotel bedroom +and smoked a pipe, meditative, with his hat on until the morning. Then he +went to bed. + +Two mornings afterwards Zora came upon him on the Casino terrace. He +sprawled idly on a bench between a fat German and his fat wife, who were +talking across him. His straw hat was tilted over his eyes and his legs +were crossed. In spite of the conversation (and a middle-class German does +not whisper when he talks to his wife), and the going and coming of the +crowd--in spite of the sunshine and the blue air, he slumbered peacefully. +Zora passed him once or twice. Then by the station lift she paused and +looked out at the bay of Mentone clasping the sea--a blue enamel in a +setting of gold. She stood for some moments lost in the joy of it when a +voice behind her brought her back to the commonplace. + +"Very lovely, isn't it?" + +A thin-faced Englishman of uncertain age and yellow, evil eyes met her +glance as she turned instinctively. + +"Yes, it's beautiful," she replied coldly; "but that is no reason why you +should take the liberty of speaking to me." + +"I couldn't help sharing my emotions with another, especially one so +beautiful. You seem to be alone here?" + +Now she remembered having seen him before--rather frequently. The previous +evening he had somewhat ostentatiously selected a table near hers at +dinner. He had watched her as she had left the theater and followed her to +the lift door. He had been watching for his opportunity and now thought it +had come. She shivered with sudden anger, and round her heart crept the +chill of fright which all women know who have been followed in a lonely +street. + +"I certainly am not alone," she said wrathfully. "Good morning." + +The man covered his defeat by raising his hat with ironic politeness, and +Zora walked swiftly away, in appearance a majestic Amazon, but inwardly a +quivering woman. She marched straight up to the recumbent Dix. The Literary +Man from London would have been amused. She interposed herself between the +conversing Teutons and awakened the sleeper. He looked at her for a moment +with a dreamy smile, then leaped to his feet. + +"A man has insulted me--he has been following me about and tried to get +into conversation with me." + +"Dear me," said Septimus. "What shall I do? Shall I shoot him?" + +"Don't be silly," she said seriously. "It's serious. I'd be glad if you'd +kindly walk up and down a little with me." + +"With pleasure." They strolled away together. "But I _am_ serious. If you +wanted me to shoot him I'd do it. I'd do anything in the world for you. +I've got a revolver in my room." + +She laughed, disclaiming desire for supreme vengeance. + +"I only want to show the wretch that I am not a helpless woman," she +observed, with the bewildering illogic of the sex. And as she passed by the +offender she smiled down at her companion with all the sweetness of +intimacy and asked him why he carried a revolver. She did not point the +offender out, be it remarked, to the bloodthirsty Septimus. + +"It belongs to Wiggleswick," he replied in answer to her question. "I +promised to take care of it for him." + +"What does Wiggleswick do when you are away?" + +"He reads the police reports. I take in _Reynolds_ and the _News of the +World_ and the illustrated _Police News_ for him, and he cuts them out and +gums them in a scrap book. But I think I'm happier without Wiggleswick. He +interferes with my guns." + +"By the way," said Zora, "you talked about guns the other evening. What +have you got to do with guns?" + +He looked at her in a scared way out of the corner of his eye, +child-fashion, as though to make sure she was loyal and worthy of +confidence, and then he said: + +"I invent 'em. I have written a treatise on guns of large caliber." + +"Really?" cried Zora, taken by surprise. She had not credited him with so +serious a vocation. "Do tell me something about it." + +"Not now," he pleaded. "Some other time. I'd have to sit down with paper +and pencil and draw diagrams. I'm afraid you wouldn't like it. Wiggleswick +doesn't. It bores him. You must be born with machinery in your blood. +Sometimes it's uncomfortable." + +"To have cogwheels instead of corpuscles must be trying," said Zora +flippantly. + +"Very," said he. "The great thing is to keep them clear of the heart." + +"What do you mean?" she asked quickly. + +"Whatever one does or tries to do, one should insist on remaining human. +It's good to be human, isn't it? I once knew a man who was just a +complicated mechanism of brain encased in a body. His heart didn't beat; it +clicked and whirred. It caused the death of the most perfect woman in the +world." + +He looked dreamily into the blue ether between sea and sky. Zora felt +strangely drawn to him. + +"Who was it?" she asked softly. + +"My mother," said he. + +They had paused in their stroll, and were leaning over the parapet above +the railway line. After a few moments' silence he added, with a faint +smile:-- + +"That's why I try hard to keep myself human--so that, if a woman should +ever care for me, I shouldn't hurt her." + +A green caterpillar was crawling on his sleeve. In his vague manner he +picked it tenderly off and laid it on the leaf of an aloe that grew in the +terrace vase near which he stood. + +"You couldn't even hurt that crawling thing--let alone a woman," said Zora. +This time very softly. + +He blushed. "If you kill a caterpillar you kill a butterfly," he said +apologetically. + +"And if you kill a woman?" + +"Is there anything higher?" said he. + +She made no reply, her misanthropical philosophy prompting none. There was +rather a long silence, which he broke by asking her if she read Persian. He +excused his knowledge of it by saying that it kept him human. She laughed +and suggested a continuance of their stroll. He talked disconnectedly as +they walked up and down. + +The crowd on the terrace thinned as the hour of dejeuner approached. +Presently she proclaimed her hunger. He murmured that it must be near +dinner time. She protested. He passed his hands across his eyes and +confessed that he had got mixed up in his meals the last few days. Then an +idea struck him. + +"If I skip afternoon tea, and dinner, and supper, and petit dejeuner, and +have two breakfasts running," he exclaimed brightly, "I shall begin fair +again." And he laughed, not loud, but murmuringly, for the first time. + +They went round the Casino to the front of the Hotel de Paris, their +natural parting place. But there, on the steps, with legs apart, stood the +wretch with the evil eyes. He looked at her from afar, banteringly. +Defiance rose in Zora's soul. She would again show him that she was not a +lone and helpless woman at the mercy of the casual depredator. + +"I'm taking you in to lunch with me, Mr. Dix. You can't refuse," she said; +and without waiting for a reply she sailed majestically past the wretch, +followed meekly by Septimus, as if she owned him body and soul. + +As usual, many eyes were turned on her as she entered the restaurant--a +radiant figure in white, with black hat and black chiffon boa, and a deep +red rose in her bosom. The maitre d'hotel, in the pride of reflected glory, +conducted her to a table near the window. Septimus trailed inconclusively +behind. When he seated himself he stared at her silently in a mute surmise +as the gentlemen in the poem did at the peak in Darien. It was even a +wilder adventure than the memorable drive. That was but a caprice of the +goddess; this was a sign of her friendship. The newness of their intimacy +smote him dumb. He passed his hand through his Struwel Peter hair and +wondered. Was it real? There sat the goddess, separated from him by the +strip of damask, her gold-flecked eyes smiling frankly and trustfully into +his, pulling off her gloves and disclosing, in almost disconcerting +intimacy, her warm wrists and hands. Was he dreaming, as he sometimes did, +in broad daylight, of a queer heaven in which he was strong like other men +and felt the flutter of wings upon his cheek? Something soft was in his +hand. Mechanically he began to stuff it up his sleeve. It was his napkin. +Zora's laugh brought him to earth--to happy earth. + +It is a pleasant thing to linger _tete-a-tete_ over lunch on the terrace of +the Hotel de Paris. Outside is the shade of the square, the blazing +sunshine beyond the shadow; the fountain and the palms and the doves; the +white gaiety of pleasure houses; the blue-gray mountains cut sharp against +the violet sky. Inside, a symphony of cool tones: the pearl of summer +dresses; the snow, crystal, and silver of the tables; the tender green of +lettuce, the yellows of fruit, the soft pink of salmon; here and there a +bold note of color--the flowers in a woman's hat, the purples and topazes +of wine. Nearer still to the sense is the charm of privacy. The one human +being for you in the room is your companion. The space round your chairs is +a magic circle, cutting you off from the others, who are mere decorations, +beautiful or grotesque. Between you are substances which it were gross to +call food: dainty mysteries of coolness and sudden flavors; a fish salad in +which the essences of sea and land are blended in cold, celestial harmony; +innermost kernels of the lamb of the salted meadows where must grow the +Asphodel on which it fed, in amorous union with what men call a sauce, but +really oil and cream and herbs stirred by a god in a dream; peaches in +purple ichor chastely clad in snow, melting on the palate as the voice of +the divine singer after whom they are named melts in the soul. + +It is a pleasant thing--hedonistic? yes; but why live on lentils when +lotus is to your hand? and, really, at Monte Carlo lentils are quite as +expensive--it is a pleasant thing, even for the food-worn wanderer of many +restaurants, to lunch _tete-a-tete_ at the Hotel de Paris; but for the +young and fresh-hearted to whom it is new, it is enchantment. + +"I've often looked at people eating like this and I've often wondered how +it felt," said Septimus. + +"But you must have lunched hundreds of times in such places." + +"Yes--but by myself. I've never had a--" he paused. "A what?" + +"A--a gracious lady," he said, reddening, "to sit opposite me." + +"Why not?" + +"No one has ever wanted me. It has always puzzled me how men get to know +women and go about with them. I think it must be a gift," he asserted with +the profound gravity of a man who has solved a psychological problem. "Some +fellows have a gift for collecting Toby jugs. Everywhere they go they +discover a Toby jug. I couldn't find one if I tried for a year. It's the +same thing. At Cambridge they used to call me the Owl." + +"An owl catches mice, at any rate," said Zora. + +"So do I. Do you like mice?" + +"No. I want to catch lions and tigers and all the bright and burning things +of life," cried Zora, in a burst of confidence. + +He regarded her with wistful admiration. + +"Your whole life must be full of such things." + +"I wonder," she said, looking at him over the spoonful of peche Melba which +she was going to put in her mouth, "I wonder whether you have the faintest +idea who I am and what I am and what I'm doing here all by myself, and why +you and I are lunching together in this delightful fashion. You have told +me all about yourself--but you seem to take me for granted." + +She was ever so little piqued at his apparent indifference. But if men like +Septimus Dix did not take women for granted, where would be the chivalry +and faith of the children of the world? He accepted her unquestioningly as +the simple Trojan accepted the Olympian lady who appeared to him clad in +grace (but otherwise scantily) from a rosy cloud. + +"You are yourself," he said, "and that has been enough for me." + +"How do you know I'm not an adventuress? There are heaps of them, people +say, in this place. I might be a designing thief of a woman." + +"I offered you the charge of my money the other night." + +"Was that why you did it? To test me?" she asked. + +He reddened and started as if stung. She saw the hurt instantly, and with a +gush of remorse begged for forgiveness. + +"No. I didn't mean it. It was horrid of me. It is not in your nature to +think such a thing. Forgive me." + +Frankly, impulsively, she stretched her hand across the table. He touched +it timidly with his ineffectual fingers, not knowing what to do with it, +vaguely wondering whether he should raise it to his lips, and so kept +touching it, until she pressed his fingers in a little grip of +friendliness, and withdrew it with a laugh. + +"Do you know, I still have that money," he said, pulling a handful of great +five-louis pieces from his pocket. "I can't spend it. I've tried to. I +bought a dog yesterday but he wanted to bite me and I had to give him to +the hotel porter. All this gold makes such a bulge in my pocket." + +When Zora explained that the coins were only used as counters and could be +changed for notes at the rooms, he was astonished at her sapience. He had +never thought of it. Thus Zora regained her sense of superiority. + +This lunch was the first of many meals they had together; and meals led to +drives and excursions, and to evenings at the theater. If she desired still +further to convince the wretch with the evil eyes of her befriended state, +she succeeded; but the wretch and his friends speculated evilly on the +relations between her and Septimus Dix. They credited her with pots of +money. Zora, however, walked serene, unconscious of slander, enjoying +herself prodigiously. Secure in her scorn and hatred of men she saw no harm +in her actions. Nor was there any, from the point of view of her young +egotism and inexperience. It scarcely occurred to her that Septimus was a +man. In some aspects he appealed to her instinctive motherhood like a +child. When she met him one day coming out of one of the shops in the +arcade, wearing a newly bought Homburg hat too small for him, she marched +him back with a delicious sense of responsibility and stood over him till +he was adequately fitted. In other aspects he was like a woman in whose shy +delicacy she could confide. She awoke also to a new realization--that of +power. Now, to use power with propriety needs wisdom, and the woman who is +wise at five-and-twenty cannot make out at sixty why she has remained an +old maid. The delightful way to use it is that of a babe when he first +discovers that a stick hits. That is the way that Zora, who was not wise, +used it over Septimus. For the first time in her life she owned a human +being. A former joy in the possession of a devoted dog who did tricks was +as nothing to this rapture. It was splendid. She owned him. Whenever she +had a desire for his company--which was often, as solitude at Monte Carlo +is more depressing than Zora had realized--she sent a page boy, in the true +quality of his name of _chasseur_, to hunt down the quarry and bring him +back. He would, therefore, be awakened at unearthly hours, at three o'clock +in the afternoon, for instance, when, as he said, all rational beings +should be asleep, it being their own unreason if they were not; or he would +be tracked down at ten in the morning to some obscure little cafe in the +town where he would be discovered eating ices and looking the worse for +wear in his clothes of the night before. As this meant delay in the +execution of her wishes, Zora prescribed habits less irregular. By means of +bribery of chambermaids and porters, and the sacrifice of food and sleep, +he contrived to find himself dressed in decent time in the mornings. He +would then patiently await her orders or call modestly for them at her +residence, like the butcher or the greengrocer. + +"Why does your hair stand up on end, in that queer fashion?" she asked him +one day. The hat episode had led to a general regulation of his personal +appearance. + +He pondered gravely over the conundrum for some time, and then replied that +he must have lost control over it. The command went forth that he should +visit a barber and learn how to control his hair. He obeyed, and returned +with his shock parted in the middle and plastered down heavily with +pomatum, a saint of more than methodistical meekness. On Zora declaring +that he looked awful (he was indeed inconceivably hideous), and that she +preferred Struwel Peter after all, he dutifully washed his head with soda +(after grave consultation with the chambermaid), and sunned himself once +more in the smiles of his mistress. + +Now and then, however, as she was kind and not tyrannical, she felt a +pin-prick of compunction. + +"If you would rather do anything else, don't hesitate to say so." + +But Septimus, after having contemplated the world's potentialities of +action with lack-luster eye, would declare that there was nothing else that +could be done. Then she could rate him soundly. + +"If I proposed that we should sail up the Andes and eat fried moonbeams, +you would say 'yes.' Why haven't you more initiative?" + +"I'm like Mrs. Shandy," he replied. "Some people are born so. They are +quiescent; other people can jump about like grasshoppers. Do you know +grasshoppers are very interesting?" And he began to talk irrelevantly on +insects. + +Their intercourse encouraged confidential autobiography. Zora learned the +whole of his barren history. Fatherless, motherless, brotherless, he was +alone in the world. From his father, Sir Erasmus Dix, a well-known +engineer, to whose early repression much of Septimus's timidity was due, he +had inherited a modest fortune. After leaving Cambridge he had wandered +aimlessly about Europe. Now he lived in a little house in Shepherd's Bush, +with a studio or shed at the end of the garden which he used as a +laboratory. + +"Why Shepherd's Bush?" asked Zora. + +"Wiggleswick likes it," said he. + +"And now he has the whole house to himself? I suppose he makes himself +comfortable in your quarters and drinks your wine and smokes your cigars +with his friends. Did you lock things up?" + +"Oh, yes, of course," said Septimus. + +"And where are the keys?" + +"Why Wiggleswick has them," he replied. + +Zora drew in her breath. "You don't know how angry you make me. If ever I +meet Wiggleswick--" + +"Well?" + +"I'll talk to him," said Zora with a fine air of menace. + +She, on her side, gave him such of her confidences as were meet for +masculine ears. Naturally she impressed upon him the fact that his sex was +abhorrent to her in all its physical, moral, and spiritual manifestations. +Septimus, on thinking the matter over, agreed with her. Memories came back +to him of the men with whom he had been intimate. His father, the +mechanical man who had cogs instead of corpuscles in his blood, Wiggleswick +the undesirable, a few rowdy men on his staircase at Cambridge who had led +shocking lives--once making a bonfire of his pyjamas and a brand-new +umbrella in the middle of the court--and had since come to early and +disastrous ends. His impressions of the sex were distinctly bad. Germs of +unutterable depravity, he was sure, lurked somewhere in his own nature. + +"You make me feel," said he, "as if I weren't fit to black the boots of +Jezebel." + +"That's a proper frame of mind," said Zora. "Would you be good and tie this +vexatious shoestring?" + +The poor fool bent over it in reverent ecstasy, but Zora was only conscious +of the reddening of his gills as he stooped. + +This, to her, was the charm of their intercourse: that he never presumed +upon their intimacy. When she remembered the prophecy of the Literary Man +from London, she laughed at it scornfully. Here was a man, at any rate, who +regarded her beauty unconcerned, and from whose society she derived no +emotional experiences. She felt she could travel safely with him to the end +of the earth. + +This reflection came to her one morning while Turner, her maid, was +brushing her hair. The corollary followed: "why not?" + +"Turner," she said, "I'll soon have seen enough of Monte Carlo. I must go +to Paris. What do you think of my asking Mr. Dix to come with us?" + +"I think it would be most improper, ma'am," said Turner. + +"There's nothing at all improper about it," cried Zora, with a flush. "You +ought to be ashamed of yourself." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +At Monte Carlo, as all the world knows, there is an Arcade devoted to the +most humorously expensive lace, diamond and general vanity shops in the +universe, the Hotel Metropole and Ciro's Restaurant. And Ciro's has a +terrace where there are little afternoon tea-tables covered with pink +cloths. + +It was late in the afternoon, and save for a burly Englishman in white +flannels and a Panama hat, reading a magazine by the door, and Zora and +Septimus, who sat near the public gangway, the terrace was deserted. +Inside, some men lounged about the bar drinking cocktails. The red Tzigane +orchestra were already filing into the restaurant and the electric lamps +were lit. Zora and Septimus had just returned from a day's excursion to +Cannes. They were pleasantly tired and lingered over their tea in a +companionable silence. Septimus ruminated dreamily over the nauseous +entanglement of a chocolate eclair and a cigarette while Zora idly watched +the burly Englishman. Presently she saw him do an odd thing. He tore out +the middle of the magazine,--it bore an American title on the +outside,--handed it to the waiter and put the advertisement pages in his +pocket. From another pocket he drew another magazine, and read the +advertisement pages of that with concentrated interest. + +Her attention was soon distracted by a young couple, man and woman, +decently dressed, who passed along the terrace, glanced at her, repassed +and looked at her more attentively, the woman wistfully, and then stopped +out of earshot and spoke a few words together. They returned, seemed to +hesitate, and at last the woman, taking courage, advanced and addressed +her. + +"_Pardon, Madame_--but Madame looks so kind. Perhaps will she pardon the +liberty of my addressing her?" + +Zora smiled graciously. The woman was young, fragile, careworn, and a +piteous appeal lay in her eyes. The man drew near and raised his hat +apologetically. The woman continued. They had seen Madame there--and +Monsieur--both looked kind, like all English people. Although she was +French she was forced to admit the superior generosity of the English. They +had hesitated, but the kind look of Madame had made her confident. They +were from Havre. They had come to Nice to look after a lawsuit. Nearly all +their money had gone. They had a little baby who was ill. In desperation +they had brought the remainder of their slender fortune to Monte Carlo. +They had lost it. It was foolish, but yet the baby came out that day with +nine red spots on its chest and it seemed as if it was a sign from the bon +Dieu that they should back nine and red at the tables. Now she knew too +late that it was measles and not a sign from the bon Dieu at all. But they +were penniless. The baby wanted physic and a doctor and would die. As a +last resource they resolved to sink their pride and appeal to the +generosity of Monsieur and Madame. The woman's wistful eyes filled with +tears and the corners of her mouth quivered. The man with a great effort +choked a sob. Zora's generous heart melted at the tale. It rang so stupidly +true. The fragile creature's air was so pathetic. She opened her purse. + +"Will a hundred francs be of any use to you?" she asked in her schoolgirl +French. + +"Oh, Madame!" + +"And I, too, will give a hundred to the baby," said Septimus. "I like +babies and I've also had the measles." He opened his pocketbook. + +"Oh, Monsieur," said the man. "How can I ever be sufficiently grateful?" + +He held out his hand for the note, when something hit him violently in the +back. It was the magazine hurled by the burly Englishman, who followed up +the assault by a torrent of abuse. + +_"Allez-vous-ong! Cochons! Et plus vite que ca!"_ There was something +terrific in his awful British accent. + +The pair turned in obvious dismay. He waved them off. + +"Don't give them anything. The baby hasn't any red spots. There isn't a +baby. They daren't show their noses in the rooms. _Oh je vous connais. Vous +etes George Polin et Celestine Macrou. Sales voleurs. Allez-vous-ong ou +j'appelle la police_." + +But the last few words were shouted to the swiftly retiring backs of the +pathetic couple. + +"I've saved you two hundred francs," said the burly Englishman, picking up +his magazine and tenderly smoothing it. "Those two are the most +accomplished swindlers in this den of thieves." + +"I can't believe it," said Zora, half hurt, half resentful. "The woman's +eyes were full of tears." + +"It's true," said her champion. "And the best of it is that the man is +actually an accredited agent of Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy." + +He stood, his hands on his broad hips, regarding her with the piercing +eyes of a man who is imparting an incredible but all-important piece of +information. + +"Why the best of it?" asked Zora, puzzled. + +"It only shows how unscrupulous they are in their business methods. A man +like that could persuade a fishmonger or an undertaker to stock it. But +he'll do them in the end. They'll suffer for it." + +"Who will?" + +"Why, Jebusa Jones, of course. Oh, I see," he continued, looking at the two +perplexed faces, "you don't know who I am. I am Clem Sypher." + +He looked from one to the other as if to see the impression made by his +announcement. + +"I am glad to make your acquaintance," said Septimus, "and I thank you for +your services." + +"Your name?" + +"My name is Dix--Septimus Dix." + +"Delighted to meet you. I have seen you before. Two years ago. You were +sitting alone in the lounge of the Hotel Continental, Paris. You were +suffering from severe abrasions on your face." + +"Dear me," said Septimus. "I remember. I had shaved myself with a safety +razor. I invented it." + +"I was going to speak to you, but I was prevented." He turned to Zora. + +"I've met you too, on Vesuvius in January. You were with two elderly +ladies. You were dreadfully sunburnt. I made their acquaintance next day in +Naples. You had gone, but they told me your name. Let me see. I know +everybody and never forget anything. My mind is pigeon-holed like my +office. Don't tell me." + +He held up his forefinger and fixed her with his eye. + +"It's Middlemist," he cried triumphantly, "and you've an Oriental kind of +Christian name--Zora! Am I right?" + +"Perfectly," she laughed, the uncanniness of his memory mitigating the +unconventionality of his demeanor. + +"Now we all know one another," he said, swinging a chair round and sitting +unasked at the table. "You're both very sunburnt and the water here is hard +and will make the skin peel. You had better use some of the cure. I use it +myself every day--see the results." + +He passed his hand over his smooth, clean-shaven face, which indeed was as +rosy as a baby's. His piercing eyes contrasted oddly with his chubby, full +lips and rounded chin. + +"What cure?" asked Zora, politely. + +"What cure?" he echoed, taken aback, "why, my cure. What other cure is +there?" + +He turned to Septimus, who stared at him vacantly. Then the incredible +truth began to dawn on him. + +"I am Clem Sypher--Friend of Humanity--Sypher's Cure. Now do you know?" + +"I'm afraid I'm shockingly ignorant," said Zora. + +"So am I," said Septimus. + +"Good heavens!" cried Sypher, bringing both hands down on the table, +tragically. "Don't you ever read your advertisements?" + +"I'm afraid not," said Zora. + +"No," said Septimus. + +Before his look of mingled amazement and reproach they felt like +Sunday-school children taken to task for having skipped the Kings of +Israel. + +"Well," said Sypher, "this is the reward we get for spending millions of +pounds and the shrewdest brains in the country for the benefit of the +public! Have you ever considered what anxious thought, what consummate +knowledge of human nature, what dearly bought experience go to the making +of an advertisement? You'll go miles out of your way to see a picture or a +piece of sculpture that hasn't cost a man half the trouble and money to +produce, and you'll not look at an advertisement of a thing vital to your +life, though it is put before your eyes a dozen times a day. Here's my +card, and here are some leaflets for you to read at your leisure. They will +repay perusal." + +He drew an enormous pocketbook from his breast pocket and selected two +cards and two pamphlets, which he laid on the table. Then he arose with an +air of suave yet offended dignity. Zora, seeing that the man, in some +strange way, was deeply hurt, looked up at him with a conciliatory smile. + +"You mustn't bear me any malice, Mr. Sypher, because I'm so grateful to you +for saving us from these swindling people." + +When Zora smiled into a man's eyes, she was irresistible. Sypher's pink +face relaxed. + +"Never mind," he said. "I'll send you all the advertisements I can lay my +hands on in the morning. Au revoir." + +He raised his hat and went away. Zora laughed across the table. + +"What an extraordinary person!" + +"I feel as if I had been talking to a typhoon," said Septimus. + + * * * * * + +They went to the theater that evening, and during the first entr'acte +strolled into the rooms. Except the theater the Casino administration +provides nothing that can allure the visitor from the only purpose of the +establishment. Even the bar at the end of the atrium could tempt nobody not +seriously parched with thirst. It is the most comfortless pleasure-house in +Europe. You are driven, deliberately, in desperation into the rooms. + +Zora and Septimus were standing by the decorous hush of a _trente et +quarante_ table, when they were joined by Mr. Clem Sypher. He greeted them +like old acquaintances. + +"I reckoned I should meet you sometime to-night. Winning?" + +"We never play," said Zora. + +Which was true. A woman either plunges feverishly into the vice of gambling +or she is kept away from it by her inborn economic sense of the uses of +money. She cannot regard it like a man, as a mere amusement. Light loves +are somewhat in the same category. Hence many misunderstandings between the +sexes. Zora found the amusement profitless, the vice degraded. So, after +her first evening, she played no more. Septimus did not count. + +"We never play," said Zora. + +"Neither do I," said Sypher. + +"The real way to enjoy Monte Carlo is to regard these rooms as +non-existent. I wish they were." + +"Oh, don't say that," Sypher exclaimed quickly. "They are most useful. They +have a wisely ordained purpose. They are the meeting-place of the world. I +come here every year and make more acquaintances in a day than I do +elsewhere in a month. Soon I shall know everybody and everybody will know +me, and they'll take away with them to Edinburgh and Stockholm and Uruguay +and Tunbridge Wells--to all corners of the earth--a personal knowledge of +the cure." + +"Oh--I see. From that point of view--" said Zora. + +"Of course. What other could there be? You see the advantage? It makes the +thing human. It surrounds it with personality. It shows that 'Friend of +Humanity' isn't a cant phrase. They recommend the cure to their friends. +'Are you sure it's all right?' they are asked. 'Of course it is,' they can +reply. _'I know the man, Clem Sypher himself.'_ And the friends are +convinced and go about saying they know a man who knows Clem Sypher, and so +the thing spreads like a snowball. Have you read the pamphlet?" + +"It was most interesting," said Zora mendaciously. + +"I thought you'd find it so. I've brought something in my pocket for you." + +He searched and brought out a couple of little red celluloid boxes, which +he handed to Septimus. + +"There are two sample boxes of the cure--one for Mrs. Middlemist and one +for yourself, Mr. Dix. You both have a touch of the sun. Put it on +to-night. Let it stay there for five minutes; then rub off with a smooth, +dry towel. In the morning you'll see the miracle." He looked at Septimus +earnestly. "Quite sure you haven't anything in the nature of an eruption on +you?" + +"Good Lord, no. Of course not," said Septimus, startled out of a dreamy +contemplation of the two little red boxes. + +"That's a pity. It would have been so nice to cure you. Ah!" said he, with +a keen glance up the room. "There's Lord Rebenham. I must enquire after his +eczema. You won't forget me now. Clem Sypher. Friend of Humanity." + +He bowed and withdrew, walking kindly and broad-shouldered trough the +crowd, like a benevolent deity, the latest thing in AEsculapiuses, among his +devotees. + +"What am I to do with these?" asked Septimus, holding out the boxes. + +"You had better give me mine, or heaven knows what will become of it," said +Zora, and she put it in her little chain bag, with her handkerchief, purse, +and powder-puff. + +The next morning she received an enormous basket of roses and a bundle of +newspapers; also a card, bearing the inscription "Mr. Clem Sypher. The +Kurhaus. Kilburn Priory, N.W." She frowned ever so little at the flowers. +To accept them would be to accept Mr. Sypher's acquaintance in his private +and Kilburn Priory capacity. To send them back would be ungracious, seeing +that he had saved her a hundred francs and had cured her imaginary sunburn. +She took up the card and laughed. It was like him to name his residence +"The Kurhaus." She would never know him in his private capacity, for the +simple reason that he hadn't one. The roses were an advertisement. So +Turner unpacked the basket, and while Zora was putting the roses into water +she wondered whether Mr. Sypher's house was decorated with pictorial +advertisements of the cure instead of pictures. Her woman's instinct, +however, caused the reflection that the roses must have cost more than all +the boxes of the cure she could buy in a lifetime. + +Septimus was dutifully waiting for her in the hall. She noted that he was +more spruce than usual, in a new gray cashmere suit, and that his brown +boots shone dazzlingly, like agates. They went out together, and the first +person who met their eyes was the Friend of Humanity sunning himself in the +square and feeding the pigeons with bread crumbs from a paper bag. As soon +as he saw Zora he emptied his bag and crossed over. + +"Good morning, Mrs. Middlemist. Good morning, Mr. Dix. Used the cure? I +see you have, Mrs. Middlemist. Isn't it wonderful? If you'd only go about +Monte Carlo with an inscription 'Try Sypher's Cure!' What an advertisement! +I'd have you one done in diamonds! And how did you find it, Mr. Dix?" + +"I--oh!" murmured Septimus. "I forgot about it last night--and this morning +I found I hadn't any brown boot polish--I--" + +"Used the cure?" cried Zora, aghast. + +"Yes," said Septimus, timidly. "It's rather good," and he regarded his +dazzling boots. + +Clem Sypher burst into a roar of laughter and clapped Septimus on the +shoulder. + +"Didn't I tell you?" he cried delightedly. "Didn't I tell you it's good for +everything? What cream could give you such a polish? By Jove! You deserve +to be on the free list for life. You've given me a line for an ad. 'If your +skin is all right, try it on your boots.' By George! I'll use it. This is a +man with ideas, Mrs. Middlemist. We must encourage him." + +"Mr. Dix is an inventor," said Zora. She liked Sypher for laughing. It made +him human. It was therefore with a touch of kindly feeling that she thanked +him for the roses. + +"I wanted to make them blush at the sight of your complexion after the +cure," said he. + +It was a compliment, and Zora frowned; but it was a professional +compliment--so she smiled. Besides, the day was perfect, and Zora not only +had not a care in the wide world, but was conscious of a becoming hat. She +could not help smiling pleasantly on the world. + +An empty motor car entered the square, and drew up near by. The chauffeur +touched his cap. + +"I'll run you both over to Nice," said Clem Sypher. "I have to meet my +agent there and put the fear of God into him. I shan't be long. My methods +are quick. And I'll run you back again. Don't say no." + +There was the car--a luxurious 40 h.p. machine, upholstered in green; there +was Clem Sypher, pink and strong, appealing to her with his quick eyes; +there was the sunshine and the breathless blue of the sky; and there was +Septimus Dix, a faithful bodyguard. She wavered and turned to Septimus. + +"What do you say?" + +She was lost. Septimus murmured something inconclusive. Sypher triumphed. +She went indoors to get her coat and veil. Sypher admiringly watched her +retreating figure--a poem of subtle curves--and shrugging himself into his +motor coat, which the chauffeur brought him from the car, he turned to +Septimus. + +"Look here, Mr. Dix, I'm a straight man, and go straight to a point. Don't +be offended. Am I in the way?" + +"Not in the least," said Septimus, reddening. + +"As for me, I don't care a hang for anything in the universe save Sypher's +Cure. That's enough for one man to deal with. But I like having such a +glorious creature as Mrs. Middlemist in my car. She attracts attention; and +I can't say but what I'm not proud at being seen with her, both as a man +and a manufacturer. But that's all. Now, tell me, what's in your mind?" + +"I don't think I quite like you--er--to look on Mrs. Middlemist as an +advertisement," said Septimus. To speak so directly cost him considerable +effort. + +"Don't you? Then I won't. I love a man to speak straight to me. I respect +him. Here's my hand." He wrung Septimus's hand warmly. "I feel that we are +going to be friends. I'm never wrong. I hope Mrs. Middlemist will allow me +to be a friend. Tell me about her." + +Septimus again reddened uncomfortably. He belonged to a class which does +not discuss its women with a stranger even though he be a newly sworn +brother. + +"She mightn't care for it," he said. + +Sypher once more clapped him on the shoulder. "Good again!" he cried, +admiringly. "I shouldn't like you half so much if you had told me. I've got +to know, for I know everything, so I'll ask her myself." + +Zora came down coated and veiled, her face radiant as a Romney in its frame +of gauze. She looked so big and beautiful, and Sypher looked so big and +strong, and both seemed so full of vitality, that Septimus felt criminally +insignificant. His voice was of too low a pitch to make itself carry when +these two spoke in their full tones. He shrank into his shell. Had he not +realized, in his sensitive way, that without him as a watchdog--ineffectual +spaniel that he was--Zora would not accept Clem Sypher's invitation, he +would have excused himself from the drive. He differentiated, not +conceitedly, between Clem Sypher and himself. She had driven alone with him +on her first night at Monte Carlo. But then she had carried him off between +her finger and thumb, so to speak, as the Brobdingnagian ladies carried off +Gulliver. He knew that he did not count as a danger in the eyes of +high-spirited young women. A man like Sypher did. He knew that Zora would +not have driven alone with Sypher any more than with the wretch of the evil +eyes. He did not analyze this out himself, as his habit of mind was too +vague and dreamy. But he knew it instinctively, as a dog knows whom he can +trust with his mistress and whom he cannot. So when Sypher and Zora, with +a great bustle of life, were discussing seating arrangements in the car, he +climbed modestly into the front seat next to the chauffeur, and would not +be dislodged by Sypher's entreaties. He was just there, on guard, having no +place in the vigorous atmosphere of their personalities. He sat aloof, +smoking his pipe, and wondering whether he could invent a motor +perambulator which could run on rails round a small garden, fill the baby's +lungs with air, and save the British Army from the temptation of +nursery-maids. His sporadic discourse on the subject perplexed the +chauffeur. + +It was a day of vivid glory. Rain had fallen heavily during the night, +laying the dust on the road and washing to gay freshness the leaves of +palms and gold-spotted orange trees and the purple bourgainvillea and other +flowers that rioted on wayside walls. All the deep, strong color of the +South was there, making things unreal: the gray mountains, fragile masses +against the solid cobalt of the sky. The Mediterranean met the horizon in a +blue so intense that the soul ached to see it. The heart of spring throbbed +in the deep bosom of summer. The air as they sped through it was like cool +spiced wine. + +Zora listened to Clem Sypher's dithyrambics. The wine of the air had got +into his head. He spoke as she had heard no man speak before. The turns of +the road brought into sight view after magic view, causing her to catch her +breath: purple rock laughing in the sea, far-off townlets flashing white +against the mountain flank, gardens of paradise. Yet Clem Sypher sang of +his cure. + +First it was a salve for all external ills that flesh is heir to. It spared +humanity its heritage of epidermatous suffering. It could not fail. He +reeled off the string of hideous diseases with a lyrical lilt. It was his +own discovery. An obscure chemist's assistant in Bury St. Edmunds, he had, +by dint of experiments, hit on this world-upheaving remedy. + +"When I found what it was that I had done, Mrs. Middlemist," said he +solemnly, "I passed my vigil, like a knight of old, in my dispensary, with +a pot of the cure in front of me, and I took a great oath to devote my life +to spread it far and wide among the nations of the earth. It should bring +comfort, I swore, to the king in his palace and the peasant in his hut. It +should be a household word in the London slum and on the Tartar steppe. +Sypher's Cure could go with the Red Cross into battle, and should be in the +clerk's wife's cupboard in Peckham Rye. The human chamois that climbs the +Alps, the gentle lunatic that plays golf, the idiot that goes and gets +scalped by Red Indians, the missionary that gets half roasted by +cannibals--if he gets quite roasted the cure's no good; it can't do +impossibilities--all should carry Sypher's Cure in their waistcoat pockets. +All mankind should know it, from China to Peru, from Cape Horn to Nova +Zembla. It would free the tortured world from plague. I would be the Friend +of Humanity. I took that for my device. It was something to live for. I was +twenty then. I am forty now. I have had twenty years of the fiercest battle +that ever man fought." + +"And surely you've come off victorious, Mr. Sypher," said Zora. + +"I shall never be victorious until it has overspread the earth!" he +declared. And he passed one hand over the other in a gesture which +symbolized the terrestrial globe with a coating of Sypher's Cure. + +"Why shouldn't it?" + +"It shall. Somehow, I believe that with you on my side it will." + +"I?" Zora started away to the corner of the car, and gazed on him in blank +amazement. "I? What in the world have I to do with it?" + +"I don't know yet," said Sypher. "I have an intuition. I'm a believer in +intuitions. I've followed them all my life, and they've never played me +false. The moment I learned that you had never heard of me, I felt it." + +Zora breathed comfortably again. It was not an implied declaration. + +"I'm fighting against the Powers of Darkness," he continued. "I once read a +bit of Spenser's 'Faerie Queene.' There was a Red Cross Knight who slew a +Dragon--but he had a fabulous kind of woman behind him. When I saw you, you +seemed that fabulous kind of woman." + +At a sharp wall corner a clump of tall poinsettias flamed against the sky. +Zora laughed full-heartedly. + +"Here we are in the middle of a Fairy Tale. What are the Powers of Darkness +in your case, Sir Red Cross Knight?" + +"Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy," said Sypher savagely. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +That was Clem Sypher's Dragon--Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy. He drew so +vivid a picture of its foul iniquity that Zora was convinced that the earth +had never harbored so scaly a horror. Of all Powers of Evil in the universe +it was the most devastating. + +She was swept up by his eloquence to his point of view, and saw things with +his eyes. When she came to examine the poor dragon in the cool light of her +own reason it appeared at the worst to be but a pushful patent medicine of +an inferior order which, on account of its cheapness and the superior +American skill in distributing it, was threatening to drive Sypher's Cure +off the market. + +"I'll strangle it as Hercules strangled the dog-headed thing," cried +Sypher. + +He meant the Hydra, which wasn't dog-headed and which Hercules didn't +strangle. But a man can be at once unmythological and sincere. Clem Sypher +was in earnest. + +"You talk as if your cure had something of a divine sanction," said Zora. +This was before her conversion. + +"Mrs. Middlemist, if I didn't believe that," said Sypher solemnly, "do you +think I would have devoted my life to it?" + +"I thought people ran these things to make money," said Zora. + +It was then that Sypher entered on the exordium of the speech which +convinced her of the diabolical noisomeness of the Jebusa Jones unguent. +His peroration summed up the contest as that between Mithra and Ahriman. + +Yet Zora, though she took a woman's personal interest in the battle +between Sypher's Cure and Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy, siding loyally and +whole-heartedly with her astonishing host, failed to pierce to the +spirituality of the man--to divine him as a Poet with an Ideal. + +"After all," said Sypher on the way back--Septimus, with his coat-collar +turned up over his ears, still sat on guard by the chauffeur, consoled by a +happy hour he had spent alone with his mistress after lunch, while Sypher +was away putting the fear of God into his agent, during which hour he had +unfolded to her his scientific philosophy of perambulators--"after all," +said Sypher, "the great thing is to have a Purpose in Life. Everyone can't +have my Purpose "--he apologized for humanity--"but they can have some +guiding principle. What's yours?" + +Zora was startled by the unexpected question. What was her Purpose in Life? +To get to the heart of the color of the world? That was rather vague. Also +nonsensical when so formulated. She took refuge in jest. + +"I thought you had decided that my mission was to help you slay the +dragon?" + +"We have to decide on our missions for ourselves," said he. + +"Don't you think it sufficient Purpose for a woman who has been in a gray +prison all her life--when she finds herself free--to go out and see all +that is wonderful in scenery like this, in paintings, architecture, +manners, and customs of other nations, in people who have other ideas and +feelings from those she knew in prison? You speak as if you're finding +fault with me for not doing anything useful. Isn't what I do enough? What +else can I do?" + +"I don't know," said Sypher, looking at the back of his gloves; then he +turned his head and met her eyes in one of his quick glances. "But you, +with your color and your build and your voice, seem somehow to me to stand +for Force--there's something big about you--just as there's something big +about me--Napoleonic--and I can't understand why it doesn't act in some +particular direction." + +"Oh, you must give me time," cried Zora. "Time to expand, to find out what +kind of creature I really am. I tell you I've been in prison. Then I +thought I was free and found a purpose, as you call it. Then I had a +knock-down blow. I am a widow--I supposed you've guessed. Oh, now, don't +speak. It wasn't grief. My married life was a six-weeks' misery. I forget +it. I went away from home free five months ago--to see all this"--she waved +her hand--"for the first time. Whatever force I have has been devoted to +seeing it all, to taking it all in." + +She spoke earnestly, just a bit passionately. In the silence that followed +she realized with sudden amazement that she had opened her heart to this +prime apostle of quackery. As he made no immediate reply, the silence grew +tense and she clasped her hands tight, and wondered, as her sex has done +from time immemorial, why on earth she had spoken. When he answered it was +kindly. + +"You've done me a great honor in telling me this. I understand. You want +the earth, or as much of it as you can get, and when you've got it and +found out what it means, you'll make a great use of it. Have you many +friends?" + +"No," said Zora. He had an uncanny way of throwing her back on to +essentials. "None stronger than myself." + +"Will you take me as a friend? I'm strong enough," said Sypher. + +"Willingly," she said, dominated by his earnestness. + +"That's good. I may be able to help you when you've found your vocation. I +can tell you, at any rate, how to get to what you want. You've just got to +keep a thing in view and go for it and never let your eyes wander to right +or left or up or down. And looking back is fatal--the truest thing in +Scripture is about Lot's wife. She looked back and was turned into a pillar +of salt." + +He paused, his face assumed an air of profound reflection, and he added +with gravity: + +"And the Clem Sypher of the period when he came by, made use of her, and +plastered her over with posters of his cure." + + * * * * * + +The day she had appointed as the end of her Monte Carlo visit arrived. She +would first go to Paris, where some Americans whom she had met in Florence +and with whom she had exchanged occasional postcards pressed her to join +them. Then London; and then a spell of rest in the lavender of Nunsmere. +That was her programme. Septimus Dix was to escort her as far as Paris, in +defiance of the proprieties as interpreted by Turner. What was to become of +him afterwards neither conjectured; least of all Septimus himself. He said +nothing about getting back to Shepherd's Bush. Many brilliant ideas had +occurred to him during his absence which needed careful working out. +Wherefore Zora concluded that he proposed to accompany her to London. + +A couple of hours before the train started she dispatched Turner to +Septimus's hotel to remind him of the journey. Turner, a strong-minded +woman of forty--like the oyster she had been crossed in love and like her +mistress she held men in high contempt--returned with an indignant tale. +After a series of parleyings with Mr. Dix through the medium of the hotel +_chasseur_, who had a confused comprehension of voluble English, she had +mounted at Mr. Dix's entreaty to his room. There she found him, half clad +and in his dressing-gown, staring helplessly at a wilderness of clothing +and toilet articles for which there was no space in his suit cases and bag, +already piled mountain high. + +"I can never do it, Turner," he said as she entered. "What's to be done?" + +Turner replied that she did not know; her mistress's instructions were that +he should catch the train. + +"I'll have to leave behind what I can't get in," he said despondently. "I +generally have to do so. I tell the hotel people to give it to widows and +orphans. But that's one of the things that make traveling so expensive." + +"But you brought everything, sir, in this luggage?" + +"I suppose so. Wiggleswick packed. It's his professional training, Turner. +I think they call it 'stowing the swag.'" + +As Turner had not heard of Wiggleswick's profession, she did not catch the +allusion. Nor did Zora enlighten her when she reported the conversation. + +"If they went in once they'll go in again," said Turner. + +"They won't. They never do," said Septimus. + +His plight was so hopeless, he seemed so immeasurably her sex's inferior, +that he awoke her contemptuous pity. Besides, her trained woman's hands +itched to restore order out of masculine chaos. + +"Turn everything out and I'll pack for you," she said resolutely, +regardless of the proprieties. On further investigation she held out +horrified hands. + +He had mixed up shirts with shoes. His clothes were rolled in bundles, his +collars embraced his sponge, his trees, divorced from boots, lay on the top +of an unprotected bottle of hair-wash; he had tried to fit his brushes +against a box of tooth-powder and the top had already come off. Turner +shook out his dress suit and discovered a couple of hotel towels which had +got mysteriously hidden in the folds. She held them up severely. + +"No wonder you can't get your things in if you take away half the hotel +linen," and she threw them to the other side of the room. + +In twenty minutes she had worked the magic of Wiggleswick. Septimus was +humbly grateful. + +"If I were you, sir," she said, "I'd go to the station at once and sit on +my boxes till my mistress arrives." + +"I think I'll do it, Turner," said Septimus. + +Turner went back to Zora flushed, triumphant, and indignant. + +"If you think, ma'am," said she, "that Mr. Dix is going to help us on our +journey, you're very much mistaken. He'll lose his ticket and he'll lose +his luggage and he'll lose himself, and we'll have to go and find them." + +"You must take Mr. Dix humorously," said Zora. + +"I've no desire to take him at all, ma'am." And Turner snorted virtuously, +as became her station. + +Zora found him humbly awaiting her on the platform in company with Clem +Sypher, who presented her with a great bunch of roses and a bundle of +illustrated papers. Septimus had received as a parting guerdon an enormous +package of the cure, which he embraced somewhat dejectedly. It was Sypher +who looked after the luggage of the party. His terrific accent filled the +station. Septimus regarded him with envy. He wondered how a man dared +order foreign railway officials about like that. + +"If I tried to do it they would lock me up. I once interfered in a street +row." + +Zora did not hear the dire results of the interference. Sypher claimed her +attention until the train was on the point of starting. + +"Your address in England? You haven't given it." + +"The Nook, Nunsmere, Surrey, will always find me." + +"Nunsmere?" He paused, pencil in hand, and looked up at her as she stood +framed in the railway carriage window. "I nearly bought a house there last +year. I was looking out for one with a lawn reaching down to a main railway +track. This one had it." + +"Penton Court?" + +"Yes. That was the name." + +"It's still unsold," laughed Zora idly. + +"I'll buy it at once," said he. + +_"En voiture_," cried the guard. + +Sypher put out his masterful hand. + +"Au revoir. Remember. We are friends. I never say what I don't mean." + +The train moved out of the station. Zora took her seat opposite Septimus. + +"I really believe he'll do it," she said. + +"What?" + +"Oh, something crazy," said Zora. "Tell me about the street row." + + * * * * * + +In Paris Zora was caught in the arms of the normal and the uneventful. An +American family consisting of a father, mother, son and two daughters +touring the continent do not generate an atmosphere of adventure. Their +name was Callender, they were wealthy, and the track beaten by the golden +feet of their predecessors was good enough for them. They were generous and +kindly. There was no subtle complexity in their tastes. They liked the +best, they paid for it, and they got it. The women were charming, +cultivated and eager for new sensations. They found Zora a new sensation, +because she had that range of half tones which is the heritage of a child +of an older, grayer civilization. Father and son delighted in her. Most men +did. Besides, she relieved the family tedium. The family knew the Paris of +the rich Anglo-Saxon and other rich Anglo-Saxons in Paris. Zora accompanied +them on their rounds. They lunched and dined in the latest expensive +restaurants in the Champs Elysees and the Bois; they went to races; they +walked up and down the Rue de la Paix and the Avenue de l'Opera and visited +many establishments where the female person is adorned. After the theater +they drove to the Cabarets of Montmartre, where they met other Americans +and English, and felt comfortably certain that they were seeing the +naughty, shocking underside of Paris. They also went to the Louvre and to +the Tomb of Napoleon. They stayed at the Grand Hotel. + +Zora saw little of Septimus. He knew Paris in a queer, dim way of his own, +and lived in an obscure hotel, whose name Zora could not remember, on the +other side of the river. She introduced him to the Callenders, and they +were quite prepared to receive him into their corporation. But he shrank +from so vast a concourse as six human beings; he seemed to be overawed by +the multitude of voices, unnerved by the multiplicity of personalities. The +unfeathered owl blinked dazedly in general society as the feathered one +does in daylight. At first he tried to stand the glare for Zora's sake. + +"Come out and mix with people and enjoy yourself," cried Zora, when he was +arguing against a proposal to join the party on a Versailles excursion. "I +want you to enjoy yourself for once in your life. Besides--you're always so +anxious to be human. This will make you human." + +"Do you think it will?" he asked seriously. "If you do, I'll come." + +But at Versailles they lost him, and the party, as a party, knew him no +more. What he did with himself in Paris Zora could not imagine. A Cambridge +acquaintance--one of the men on his staircase who had not yet terminated +his disastrous career--ran across him in the Boulevard Sevastopol. + +"Why--if it isn't the Owl! What are you doing?" + +"Oh--hooting," said Septimus. + +Which was more information as to his activities than he vouchsafed to give +Zora. Once he murmured something about a friend whom he saw occasionally. +When she asked him where his friend lived he waved an indeterminate hand +eastwards and said, "There!" It was a friend, thought Zora, of whom he had +no reason to be proud, for he prevented further questioning by adroitly +changing the conversation to the price of hams. + +"But what are you going to do with hams?" + +"Nothing," said Septimus, "but when I see hams hanging up in a shop I +always want to buy them. They look so shiny." + +Zora's delicate nostrils sniffed the faintest perfume of a mystery; but a +moment afterwards the Callenders carried her off to Ledoyen's and +Longchamps and other indubitable actualities in which she forgot things +less tangible. Long afterwards she discovered that the friend was an old +woman, a _marchande des quatre saisons_ who sold vegetables in the Place de +la Republique. He had known her many years, and as she was at the point of +death he comforted her with blood-puddings and flowers and hams and the +ministrations of an indignant physician. But at the time Septimus hid his +Good Samaritanism under a cloud of vagueness. + +Then came a period during which Zora lost him altogether. Days passed. She +missed him. Life with the Callenders was a continuous shooting of rapids. A +quiet talk with Septimus was an hour in a backwater, curiously restful. She +began to worry. Had he been run over by an omnibus? Only an ever-recurring +miracle could bring him safely across the streets of a great city. When the +Callenders took her to the Morgue she dreaded to look at the corpses. + +"I do wish I knew what has become of him," she said to Turner. + +"Why not write to him, ma'am?" Turner suggested. + +"I've forgotten the name of his hotel," said Zora, wrinkling her forehead. + +The name of the Hotel Quincamboeuf, where he lodged, eluded her memory. + +"I do wish I knew," she repeated. + +Then she caught an involuntary but illuminating gleam in Turner's eye, and +she bade her look for hairpins. Inwardly she gasped from the shock of +revelation; then she laughed to herself, half amused, half indignant. The +preposterous absurdity of the suggestion! But in her heart she realized +that, in some undefined human fashion, Septimus Dix counted for something +in her life. What had become of him? + +At last she found him one morning sitting by a table in the courtyard of +the Grand Hotel, patiently awaiting her descent. By mere chance she was +un-Callendered. + +"Why, what--?" + +The intended reproval died on her lips as she saw his face. His cheeks were +hollow and white, his eyes sunken The man was ill. His hand burned through +her glove. Feelings warm and new gushed forth. + +"Oh, my _dear_ friend, what is the matter?" + +"I must go back to England. I came to say good-bye. I've had this from +Wiggleswick." + +He handed her an open letter. She waved it away. + +"That's of no consequence. Sit down. You're ill. You have a high +temperature. You should be in bed." + +"I've been," said Septimus. "Four days." + +"And you've got up in this state? You must go back at once. Have you seen a +doctor? No, of course you haven't. Oh, dear!" She wrung her hands. "You are +not fit to be trusted alone. I'll drive you to your hotel and see that +you're comfortable and send for a doctor." + +"I've left the hotel," said Septimus. "I'm going to catch the eleven train. +My luggage is on that cab." + +"But it's five minutes past eleven now. You have lost the train--thank +goodness." + +"I'll be in good time for the four o'clock," said Septimus. "This is the +way I generally travel. I told you." He rose, swayed a bit, and put his +hand on the table to steady himself. "I'll go and wait at the station. Then +I'll be sure to catch it. You see I must go." + +"But why?" cried Zora. + +"Wiggleswick's letter. The house has been burnt down and everything in it. +The only thing he saved was a large portrait of Queen Victoria." + +Then he fainted. + + * * * * * + +Zora had him carried to a room in the hotel and sent for a doctor, who kept +him in bed for a fortnight. Zora and Turner nursed him, much to his +apologetic content. The Callenders in the meanwhile went to Berlin. + +When Septimus got up, gaunt and staring, he appealed to the beholder as the +most helpless thing which the Creator had clothed in the semblance of a +man. + +"He must take very great care of himself for the next few weeks," said the +doctor. "If he gets a relapse I won't answer for the consequences. Can't +you take him somewhere?" + +"Take him somewhere?" The idea had been worrying her for some days past. If +she left him to his own initiative he would probably go and camp with +Wiggleswick amid the ruins of his house in Shepherd's Bush, where he would +fall ill again and die. She would be responsible. + +"We can't leave him here, at any rate," she remarked to Turner. + +Turner agreed. As well abandon a month-old baby on a doorstep and expect it +to earn its livelihood. She also had come to take a proprietary interest in +Septimus. + +"He might stay with us in Nunsmere. What do you think, Turner?" + +"I think, ma'am," said Turner, "that would be the least improper +arrangement." + +"He can have Cousin Jane's room," mused Zora, knowing that Cousin Jane +would fly at her approach. + +"And I'll see, ma'am, that he comes down to his meals regular," said +Turner. + +"Then it's settled," said Zora. + +She went forthwith to the invalid and acquainted him with his immediate +destiny. At first he resisted. He would be a nuisance. Since his boyhood he +had never lived in a lady's house. Even landladies in lodgings had found +him impossible. He could not think of accepting more favors from her all +too gracious hands. + +"You've got to do what you're told," said Zora, conclusively. She noticed a +shade of anxiety cross his face. "Is there anything else?" + +"Wiggleswick. I don't know what's to become of him." + +"He can come to Nunsmere and lodge with the local policeman," said Zora. + +On the evening before they started from Paris she received a letter +addressed in a curiously feminine hand. It ran: + + "DEAR MRS. MIDDLEMIST: + + "I don't let the grass grow under my feet. I have bought Penton Court. I + have also started a campaign which will wipe the Jebusa Jones people off + the face of the earth they blacken. I hope you are finding a vocation. + When I am settled at Nunsmere we must talk further of this. I take a + greater interest in you than in any other woman I have ever known, and + that I believe you take an interest in me is the proud privilege of + + "Yours very faithfully, + "CLEM SYPHER." + +"Here are the three railway tickets, ma'am," said Turner, who had brought +up the letter. "I think we had better take charge of them." + +Zora laughed, and when Turner had left the room she laughed again. Clem +Sypher's letter and Septimus's ticket lay side by side on her +dressing-table, and they appealed to her sense of humor. They represented +the net result of her misanthropic travels. + +What would her mother say? What would Emmy say? What would be the superior +remark of the Literary Man from London? + +She, Zora Middlemist, who had announced in the market place, with such a +flourish of trumpets, that she was starting on her glorious pilgrimage to +the Heart of Life, abjuring all conversation with the execrated male sex, +to have this ironical adventure! It was deliciously funny. Not only had she +found two men in the Heart of Life, but she was bringing them back with her +to Nunsmere. She could not hide them from the world in the secrecy of her +own memory: there they were in actual, bodily presence, the sole trophies +of her quest. + +Yet she put a postscript to a letter to her mother. + +"I know, in your dear romantic way, you will declare that these two men +have fallen in love with me. You'll be wrong. If they had, _I shouldn't +have anything to do with them. It would have made them quite impossible_." + +The energy with which she licked and closed the envelope was remarkable but +unnecessary. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Things happen slowly at Nunsmere--from the grasping of an idea to the pace +of the church choir over the hymns. Life there is no vulgar, tearing +two-step, as it is in Godalming, London, and other vortices of human +passions, but the stately measure of a minuet. Delights are deliberate and +have lingering ends. A hen would scorn to hatch a chicken with the indecent +haste of her sister in the next parish. + +Six months passed, and Zora wondered what had become of them. Only a few +visits to London, where she had consorted somewhat gaily with Emmy's +acquaintances, had marked their flight, and the gentle fingers of Nunsmere +had graduated the reawakening of her nostalgia for the great world. She +spoke now and then of visiting Japan and America and South Africa, somewhat +to her mother's consternation; but no irresistible force drove her thither. +She found contentment in procrastination. + +It had also been a mild amusement to settle Septimus Dix, after his +recovery, in a little house facing the common. He had to inhabit some +portion of this planet, and as he had no choice of spot save Hackney Downs, +which Wiggleswick suggested, Zora waved her hand to the tenantless house +and told him to take it. As there was an outhouse at the end of the garden +which he could use as a workshop, his principal desideratum in a residence, +he obeyed her readily. She then bought his furniture, plate, and linen, +and a complicated kitchen battery over whose uses Wiggleswick scratched a +bewildered head. + +"A saucepan I know, and a frying-pan I know, but what you're to put in +those things with holes in them fairly licks me." + +"Perhaps we might grow geraniums in them," said Septimus brightly, alter a +fit of musing. + +"If you do," said Zora, "I'll put a female cook in charge of you both, and +wash my hands of you." + +Whereupon she explained the uses of a cullender, and gave Wiggleswick to +understand that she was a woman of her word, and that an undrained cabbage +would be the signal for the execution of her threat. From the first she had +assumed despotic power over Wiggleswick, of whose influence with his master +she had been absurdly jealous. But Wiggleswick, bent, hoary, deaf, crabbed, +evil old ruffian that he was, like most ex-prisoners instinctively obeyed +the word of command, and meekly accepted Zora as his taskmistress. + +For Septimus began happy days wherein the clock was disregarded. The vague +projects that had filled his head for the construction of a new type of +quick-firing gun took definite shape. Some queer corner of his brain had +assimilated a marvelous knowledge of field artillery, and Zora was amazed +at the extent of his technical library, which Wiggleswick had overlooked in +his statement of the salvage from the burned-down house at Shepherd's Bush. +Now and then he would creep from the shyness which enveloped the inventive +side of his nature, and would talk with her with unintelligible earnestness +of these dreadful engines; of radial and initial hoop pressures, of drift +angles, of ballistics, of longitudinal tensions, and would jot down +trigonometrical formulae illustrated by diagrams until her brain reeled; +or of his treatise on guns of large caliber just written and now in the +printers' hands, and of the revolution in warfare these astounding machines +would effect. His eyes would lose their dreamy haze and would become +luminous, his nervous fingers would become effectual, the man would become +transfigured; but as soon as the fervid fit passed off he would turn with +amiable aimlessness to his usual irrelevance. Sometimes he would work all +night, either in his room or his workshop, at his inventions. Sometimes he +would dream for days together. There was an old-fashioned pond in the +middle of the common, with rough benches placed here and there at the +brink. Septimus loved to sit on one of them and look at the ducks. He said +he was fascinated by the way they wagged their tails. It suggested an +invention: of what nature he could not yet determine. He also formed a +brotherly intimacy with a lame donkey belonging to the sexton, and used to +feed him with _pate de foie gras_ sandwiches, specially prepared by +Wiggleswick, until he was authoritatively informed that raw carrots would +be more acceptable. To see the two of them side by side watching the ducks +in the pond wag their tails was a touching spectacle. + +Another amenity in Septimus's peaceful existence was Emmy. + +Being at this time out of an engagement, she paid various flying visits to +Nunsmere, bringing with her an echo of comic opera and an odor of _Peau +d'Espagne_. She dawned on Septimus's horizon like a mischievous and +impertinent planet, so different from Zora, the great fixed star of his +heaven, yet so pretty, so twinkling, so artlessly and so obviously +revolving round some twopenny-halfpenny sun of her own, that he took her, +with Wiggleswick, the ducks and the donkey, into his close comradeship. It +was she who had ordained the carrots. She had hair like golden thistledown, +and the dainty, blonde skin that betrays every motion of the blood. She +could blush like the pink tea-rose of an old-fashioned English garden. She +could blanch to the whiteness of alabaster. Her eyes were forget-me-nots +after rain. Her mouth was made for pretty slang and kisses. Neither her +features nor her most often photographed expression showed the tiniest +scrap of what the austere of her sex used to call character. When the world +smiled on her she laughed: when it frowned, she cried. When she met +Septimus Dix, she flew to him as a child does to a new toy, and spent +gorgeous hours in pulling him to pieces to see how he worked. + +"Why aren't you married?" she asked him one day. + +He looked up at the sky--they were on the common--an autumn stretch of +pearls and purples, with here and there a streak of wistful blue, as if +seeking the inspiration of a reason. + +"Because no one has married me," he replied. + +Emmy laughed. "That's just like you. You expect a woman to drag you out of +your house by the scruff of your neck and haul you to church without your +so much as asking her." + +"I've heard that lots of women do," said Septimus. + +Emmy looked at him sharply. Every woman resents a universal criticism of +her sex, but cannot help feeling a twinge of respect for the critic. She +took refuge in scorn. + +"A real man goes out and looks for a wife." + +"But suppose he doesn't want one?" + +"He must want a woman to love. What can his life be without a woman in it? +What can anybody's life be without some one to care for? I really believe +you're made of sawdust. Why don't you fall in love?" + +Septimus took off his hat, ran his fingers through his upstanding hair, +re-covered his head, and looked at her helplessly. + +"Oh, no! I'm booked. It's no use your falling in love with me." + +"I wouldn't--presume to do such a thing," he stammered, somewhat scared. "I +think love is serious. It's like an invention: sometimes it lies deep down +inside you, great and quiet--and at other times it racks you and keeps you +from sleeping." + +"Oho!" cried Emmy. "So you know all about it. You _are_ in love. Now, tell +me, who is she?" + +"It was many years ago," said Septimus. "She wore pigtails and I burned a +hole in her pinafore with a toy cannon and she slapped my face. Afterwards +she married a butcher." + +He looked at her with his wan smile, and again raised his hat and ran his +hand through his hair. Emmy was not convinced. + +"I believe," she said, "you have fallen in love with Zora." + +He did not reply for a moment or two; then he touched her arm. + +"Please don't say that," he said, in an altered tone. + +Emmy edged up close to him, as they walked. It was her nature, even while +she teased, to be kind and caressing. + +"Not even if it's true? Why not?" + +"Things like that are not spoken of," he said soberly. "They're only felt." + +This time it was she who put a hand on his arm, with a charming, sisterly +air. + +"I hope you won't make yourself miserable over it. You see, Zora is +impossible. She'll never marry again. I do hope it's not serious. Is it?" +As he did not answer, she continued: "It would be such--such rot wasting +your life over a thing you haven't a chance of getting." + +"Why?" said Septimus. "Isn't that the history of the best lives?" + +This philosophic plane was too high for Emmy, who had her pleasant being in +a less rarified atmosphere. "To want, to get, to enjoy," was the guiding +motto of her existence. What was the use of wanting unless you got, and +what was the use of getting unless you enjoyed? She came to the conclusion +that Septimus was only sentimentally in love with Zora, and she regarded +his tepid passion as a matter of no importance. At the same time her easy +discovery delighted her. It invested Septimus with a fresh air of +comicality. + +"You're just the sort of man to write poetry about her. Don't you?" + +"Oh, no!" said Septimus. + +"Then what do you do?" + +"I play the bassoon," said he. + +Emmy clapped her hands with joy, thereby scaring a hen that was straying on +the common. + +"Another accomplishment? Why didn't you tell us? I'm sure Zora doesn't know +of it. Where did you learn?" + +"Wiggleswick taught me," said he. "He was once in a band." + +"You must bring it round," cried Emmy. + +But when Septimus, prevailed on by her entreaties, did appear with the +instrument in Mrs. Oldrieve's drawing-room, he made such unearthly and +terrific noises that Mrs. Oldrieve grew pale and Zora politely but firmly +took it from his hands and deposited it in the umbrella-stand in the hall. + +"I hope you don't mind," she said. + +"Oh, dear, no," said Septimus mildly. "I could never make out why anybody +liked it." + +Seeing that Septimus had a sentimental side to his character, Emmy +gradually took him into her confidence, until Septimus knew things that +Zora did not dream of. Zora, who had been married, and had seen the world +from Nunsmere Pond to the crater of Mount Vesuvius, treated her sister with +matronly indulgence, as a child to whom Great Things were unrevealed. She +did not reckon with the rough-and-tumble experiences of life which a girl +must gain from a two years' battle on the stage. In fact, she did not +reckon with any of the circumstances of Emmy's position. She herself was +too ignorant, too much centered as yet in her own young impulses and +aspirations, and far too serene in her unquestioning faith in the +impeccability of the Oldrieve family. To her Emmy was still the +fluffy-haired little sister with caressing ways whom she could send +upstairs for her work-basket or could reprimand for a flirtation. Emmy knew +that Zora loved her dearly; but she was the least bit in the world afraid +of her, and felt that in affairs of the heart she would be unsympathetic. +So Emmy withheld her confidence from Zora, and gave it to Septimus. +Besides, it always pleases a woman more to tell her secrets to a man than +to another woman. There is more excitement in it, even though the man be as +unmoved as a stock-fish. + +Thus it fell out that Septimus heard of Mordaunt Prince, whose constant +appearance in Emmy's London circle of friends Zora had viewed with +plentiful lack of interest. He was a paragon of men. He acted like a +Salvini and sang like an angel. He had been far too clever to take his +degree at Oxford. He had just bought a thousand-guinea motor car, +and--Septimus was not to whisper a word of it to Zora--she had recently +been on a three-days' excursion with him. Mordaunt Prince said this and +Mordaunt Prince said that. Mordaunt paid three guineas a pair for his brown +boots. He had lately divorced his wife, an unspeakable creature only too +anxious for freedom. Mordaunt came to see her every day in London, and +every day during their absence they corresponded. Her existence was wrapped +up in Mordaunt Prince. She traveled about with a suit-case (or so it +appeared to Septimus) full of his photographs. He had been the leading man +at the theater where she had her last engagement, and had fallen madly, +devotedly, passionately in love with her. As soon as the divorce was made +absolute they would be married. She had quarreled with her best friend, who +had tried to make mischief between them with a view to securing Mordaunt +for herself. Had Septimus ever heard of such a cat? Septimus hadn't. + +He was greatly interested in as much of the story as he could follow--Emmy +was somewhat discursive--and as his interjectory remarks were unprovocative +of argument, he constituted himself a good listener. Besides, romance had +never come his way. It was new to him, even Emmy's commonplace little +romance, like a field of roses to a town-bred child, and it seemed sweet +and gracious, a thing to dream about. His own distant worship of Zora did +not strike him as romantic. It was a part of himself, like the hallowed +memory of his mother and the conception of his devastating guns. Had he +been more worldly-wise he would have seen possible danger in Emmy's +romance, and insisted on Zora being taken into their confidence. But +Septimus believed that the radiant beings of the earth, such as Emmy and +Mordaunt Prince, from whom a quaint destiny kept him aloof, could only lead +radiant lives, and the thought of harm did not cross his candid mind. Even +while keeping Emmy's secret from Zora, he regarded it as a romantic and +even dainty deceit. + +Zora, seeing him happy with his guns and Wiggleswick and Emmy, applauded +herself mightily as a contriver of good. Her mother also put ideas into her +head. + +From the drawing-room window they once saw Emmy and Septimus part at the +little front gate. They had evidently returned from a walk. She plucked a +great white chrysanthemum bloom from a bunch she was carrying, flicked it +laughingly in his face, and stuck it in his buttonhole. + +"What a good thing it would be for Emmy," said Mrs. Oldrieve, with a sigh. + +"To marry Septimus? Oh, mother!" + +She laughed merrily; then all at once she became serious. + +"Why not?" she cried, and kissed her mother. + +Mrs. Oldrieve settled her cap. She was small and Zora was large, and Zora's +embraces were often disarranging. + +"He is a gentleman and can afford to keep a wife." + +"And steady?" said Zora, with a smile. + +"I should think quite steady," said Mrs. Oldrieve, without one. + +"And he would amuse Emmy all day long." + +"I don't think it is part of a husband's duty, dear, to amuse his wife," +said Mrs. Oldrieve. + +The sudden entrance of Emmy, full of fresh air, laughter, and +chrysanthemums, put an end to the conversation; but thenceforward Zora +thought seriously of romantic possibilities. Like her mother, she did not +entirely approve of Emmy's London circle. It was characterized by too much +freedom, too great a lack of reticence. People said whatever came into +their minds, and did, apparently, whatever occurred to their bodies. She +could not quite escape from her mother's Puritan strain. For herself she +felt secure. She, Zora, could wander unattended over Europe, mixing without +spot or stain with whatever company she listed; that was because she was +Zora Middlemist, a young woman of exceptional personality and experience of +life. Ordinary young persons, for their own safe conduct, ought to obey the +conventions which were made with that end in view; and Emmy was an ordinary +young person. She should marry; it would conduce to her moral welfare, and +it would be an excellent thing for Septimus. The marriage was therefore +made in the unclouded heaven of Zora's mind. She shed all her graciousness +over the young couple. Never had Emmy felt herself enwrapped in more +sisterly affection. Never had Septimus dreamed of such tender solicitude. +Yet she sang Septimus's praises to Emmy and Emmy's praises to Septimus in +so natural a manner that neither of the two was puzzled. + +"It is the natural instinct that makes every woman a matchmaker. She works +blindly towards the baby. If she cannot have one directly, she will have it +vicariously. The sourest of old maids is thus doomed to have a hand in the +perpetuation of the race." + +Thus spake the Literary Man from London, discoursing generally--out of +earshot of the Vicar and his wife, to whom he was paying one of his +periodical visits--in a corner of their drawing-room. Zora, conscious of +matchmaking, declared him to be horrid and physiological. + +"A woman is much more refined and delicate in her motives." + +"The highly civilized woman," said Rattenden, "is delightfully refined in +her table manners, and eats cucumber sandwiches in the most delicate way in +the world; but she is obeying the same instinct that makes your lady +cannibal thrust raw gobbets of missionary into her mouth with her fingers." + +"Your conversation is revolting," said Zora. + +"Because I speak the truth? Truth is a Mokanna." + +"What on earth is that?" asked Zora. + +The Literary man sighed. "The Veiled Prophet of Khorasan, Lalla Rookh, Tom +Moore. Ichabod." + +"It sounds like a cypher cablegram," said Zora flippantly. "But go on." + +"I will. Truth, I say, is a Mokanna. So long as it's decently covered with +a silver veil, you all prostrate yourselves before it and pretend to +worship it. When anyone lifts the veil and reveals the revolting horror of +it, you run away screaming, with your hands before your eyes. Why do you +want truth to be pretty? Why can't you look its ghastliness bravely in the +face? How can you expect to learn anything if you don't? How can you expect +to form judgments on men and things? How can you expect to get to the +meaning of life on which you were so keen a year ago?" + +"I want beauty, and not disgustfulness," said Zora. + +"Should it happen, for the sake of argument, that I wanted two dear +friends to marry, it is only because I know how happy they would be +together. The ulterior motive you suggest is repulsive." + +"But it's true," said Rattenden. "I wish I could talk to you more. I could +teach you a great deal. At any rate I know that you'll think about what +I've said to-day." + +"I won't," she declared. + +"You will," said he. And then he dropped a very buttery piece of buttered +toast on the carpet and, picking it up, said "damn" under his breath; and +then they both laughed, and Zora found him human. + +"Why are you so bent on educating me?" she asked. + +"Because," said he, "I am one of the few men of your acquaintance who +doesn't want to marry you." + +"Indeed?" said Zora sarcastically, yet hating herself for feeling a little +pang of displeasure. "May I ask why?" + +"Because," said he, "I've a wife and five children already." + + * * * * * + +On the top of her matchmaking and her reflections on Truth in the guise of +the Veiled Prophet of Khorasan, came Clem Sypher to take possession of his +new house. Since Zora had seen him in Monte Carlo he had been to New York, +Chicago, and San Francisco, fighting the Jebusa Jones dragon in its lair. +He had written Zora stout dispatches during the campaign. Here a victory. +There a defeat. Everywhere a Napoleonic will to conquer--but everywhere +also an implied admission of the almost invulnerable strength of his enemy. + +"I'm physically tired," said he, on the first day of his arrival, spreading +his large frame luxuriously among the cushions of Mrs. Oldrieve's +chintz-covered Chesterfield. "I'm tired for the only time in my life. I +wanted you," he added, with one of his quick, piercing looks. "It's a +curious thing, but I've kept saying to myself for the last month, 'If I +could only come into Zora Middlemist's presence and drink in some of her +vitality, I should be a new man.' I've never wanted a human being before. +It's strange, isn't it?" + +Zora came up to him, tea in hand, a pleasant smile on her face. + +"The Nunsmere air will rest you," she said demurely. + +"I don't think much of the air if you're not in it. It's like whiskey-less +soda water." He drew a long breath. "My God! It's good to see you again. +You're the one creature on this earth who believes in the Cure as I do +myself." + +Zora glanced at him guiltily. Her enthusiasm for the Cure as a religion was +tepid. In her heart she did not believe in it. She had tried it a few weeks +before on the sore head of a village baby, with disastrous results; then +the mother had called in the doctor, who wrote out a simple prescription +which healed the child immediately. The only real evidence of its powers +she had seen was on Septimus's brown boots. Humanity, however, forbade her +to deny the faith with which Clem Sypher credited her; also a genuine +feeling of admiration mingled with pity for the man. + +"Do you find much scepticism about?" she asked. + +"It's lack of enthusiasm I complain of," he replied. "Instead of accepting +it as the one heaven-sent remedy, people will use any other puffed and +advertised stuff. Chemists are even lukewarm. A grain of mustard seed of +faith among them would save me thousands of pounds a year. Not that I want +to roll in money, Mrs. Middlemist. I'm not an avaricious man. But a great +business requires capital--and to spend money merely in flogging the +invertebrate is waste--desperate waste." + +It was the first time that Zora had heard the note of depression. + +"Now that you are here, you must stay for a breathing space," she said +kindly. "You must forget it, put it out of your mind, take a holiday. +Strong as you are, you are not cast iron, and if you broke down, think what +a disaster it would be for the Cure." + +"Will you help me to have a holiday?" + +She laughed. "To the best of my ability--and provided you don't want to +make me shock Nunsmere too much." + +He waved his hand in the direction of the village and said, Napoleonically: + +"I'll look after Nunsmere. I have the motor here. We can go all over the +country. Will you come?" + +"On one condition." + +"And that?" + +"That you won't spread the Cure among our Surrey villages, and that you'll +talk of something else all the time." + +He rose and put out his hand. "I accept," he cried frankly. "I'm not a +fool. I know you're right. When are you coming to see Penton Court? I will +give a housewarming You say that Dix has settled down here. I'll look him +up. I'll be glad to see the muddle-headed seraph again. I'll ask him to +come, too, so there will be you and he--and perhaps your sister will honor +me, and your mother, Mrs. Oldrieve?" + +"Mother doesn't go out much nowadays," said Zora. "But Emmy will no doubt +be delighted to come." + +"I have a surprise for you," said Sypher. "It's a brilliant idea--have had +it in my head for months--you must tell me what you think of it." + +The entrance of Mrs. Oldrieve and Emmy put an end to further talk of an +intimate nature, and as Mrs. Oldrieve preferred the simple graces of +stereotyped conversation, the remainder of Sypher's visit was uneventful. +When he had taken his leave she remarked that he seemed to be a most +superior person. + +"I'm so glad he has made a good impression on mother," said Zora +afterwards. + +"Why?" asked Emmy. + +"It's only natural that I should be glad." + +"Oho!" said Emmy. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Nothing, dear." + +"Look here, Emmy," said Zora, half laughing, half angry. "If you say or +think such a thing I'll--I'll slap you. Mr. Sypher and I are friends. He +hasn't the remotest idea of our being anything else. If he had, I would +never speak to him again as long as I live." + +Emmy whistled a comedy air, and drummed on the window-pane. + +"He's a very remarkable man," said Zora. + +"A most superior person," mimicked Emmy. + +"And I don't think it's very good taste in us to discuss him in this +manner." + +"But, my dear," said Emmy, "it's you that are discussing him. I'm not. The +only remark I made about him was a quotation from mother." + +"I'm going up to dress for dinner," said Zora. + +She was just a little indignant. Only into Emmy's fluffy head could so +preposterous an idea have entered. Clem Sypher in love with her? If so, why +not Septimus Dix? The thing thus reduced itself to an absurdity. She +laughed to herself, half ashamed of having allowed Emmy to see that she +took her child's foolishness seriously, and came down to dinner serene and +indulgent. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Are you going to have your bath first, or your breakfast?" asked +Wiggleswick, putting his untidy gray head inside the sitting-room door. + +Septimus ran his ivory rule nervously through his hair. + +"I don't know. Which would you advise?" + +"What?" bawled Wiggleswick. + +Septimus repeated his remark in a louder voice. + +"If I had to wash myself in cold water," said Wiggleswick contemptuously, +"I'd do it on an empty stomach." + +"But if the water were warm?" + +"Well, the water ain't warm, so it's no good speculating." + +"Dear me," said Septimus. "Now that's just what I enjoy doing." + +Wiggleswick grunted. "I'll turn on the tap and leave it." + +The door having closed behind his body servant, Septimus laid his ivory +rule on the portion of the complicated diagram of machinery which he had +been measuring off, and soon became absorbed in his task. It was four +o'clock in the afternoon. He had but lately risen, and sat in pyjamas and +dressing-gown over his drawing. A bundle of proofs and a jam-pot containing +a dissipated looking rosebud lay on that space of the table not occupied by +the double-elephant sheet of paper. By his side was a manuscript covered +with calculations to which he referred or added from time to time. A bleak +November light came in through the window, and Septimus's chair was on the +right-hand side of the table. It was characteristic of him to sit +unnecessarily in his own light. + +Presently a more than normal darkening of the room caused him to look at +the window. Clem Sypher stood outside, gazing at him with amused curiosity. +Hospitably, Septimus rose and flung the casement window open. + +"Do come in." + +As the aperture was two feet square, all of Clem Sypher that could respond +to the invitation was his head and shoulders. + +"Is it good morning, good afternoon, or good night?" he asked, surveying +Septimus's attire. + +"Morning," said Septimus. "I've just got up. Have some breakfast." + +He moved to a bell-pull by the fireplace, and the tug was immediately +followed by a loud report. + +"What the devil's that?" asked Sypher, startled. + +"That," said Septimus mildly, "is an invention. I pull the rope and a +pistol is fired off in the kitchen. Wiggleswick says he can't hear bells. +What's for breakfast?" he asked, as Wiggleswick entered. + +"Haddock. And the bath's running over." + +Septimus waved him away. "Let it run." He turned to Sypher. "Have a +haddock?" + +"At four o'clock in the afternoon? Do you want me to be sick?" + +"Good heavens, no!" cried Septimus. "Do come in and I'll give you anything +you like." + +He put his hand again on the bell-pull. A hasty exclamation from Sypher +checked his impulse. + +"I say, don't do that again. If you'll open the front door for me," he +added, "I may be able to get inside." + +A moment or two later Sypher was admitted, by the orthodox avenues, into +the room. He looked around him, his hands on his hips. + +"I wonder what on earth this would have been like if our dear lady hadn't +had a hand in it." + +As Septimus's imagination was entirely scientific he could furnish no +solution to the problem. He drew a chair to the fire and bade his guest sit +down, and handed him a box of cigars which also housed a pair of compasses, +some stamps, and a collar stud. Sypher selected and lit a cigar, but +declined the chair for the moment. + +"You don't mind my looking you up? I told you yesterday I would do it, but +you're such a curious creature there's no knowing at what hour you can +receive visitors. Mrs. Middlemist told me you were generally in to lunch at +half-past four in the morning. Hello, an invention?" + +"Yes," said Septimus. + +Sypher pored over the diagram. "What on earth is it all about?" + +"It's to prevent people getting killed in railway collisions," replied +Septimus. "You see, the idea is that every compartment should consist of an +outer shell and an inner case in which passengers sit. The roof is like a +lid. When there's a collision this series of levers is set in motion, and +at once the inner case is lifted through the roof and the people are out of +the direct concussion. I haven't quite worked it out yet," he added, +passing his hand through his hair. "You see, the same thing might happen +when they're just coupling some more carriages on to a train at rest, which +would be irritating to the passengers." + +"Very," said Sypher, drily. "It would also come rather expensive, wouldn't +it?" + +"How could expense be an object when there are human lives to be saved?" + +"I think, my friend Dix," said Sypher, "you took the wrong turning in the +Milky Way before you were born. You were destined for a more enlightened +planet. If they won't pay thirteen pence halfpenny for Sypher's Cure, how +can you expect them to pay millions for your inventions? That Cure--but I'm +not going to talk about it. Mrs. Middlemist's orders. I'm here for a rest. +What are these? Proofs? Writing a novel?" + +He held up the bundle with one of his kindly smiles and one of his swift +glances at Septimus. + +"It's my book on guns." + +"Can I look?" + +"Certainly." + +Sypher straightened out the bundle--it was in page-proof--and read the +title: + +"A Theoretical Treatise on the Construction of Guns of Large Caliber. By +Septimus Dix, M.A." He looked through the pages. "This seems like sense, +but there are text-books, aren't there, giving all this information?" + +"No," said Septimus modestly. "It begins where the text-books leave off. +The guns I describe have never been cast." + +"Where on earth do you get your knowledge of artillery?" + +Septimus dreamed through the mists of memory. + +"A nurse I once had married a bombardier," said he. + +Wiggleswick entered with the haddock and other breakfast appurtenances, and +while Septimus ate his morning meal Sypher smoked and talked and looked +through the pages of the Treatise. The lamps lit and the curtains drawn, +the room had a cosier appearance than by day. Sypher stretched himself +comfortably before the fire. + +"I'm not in the way, am I?" + +"Good heavens, no!" said Septimus. "I was just thinking how pleasant it +was. I've not had a man inside my rooms since I was up at Cambridge--and +then they didn't come often, except to rag." + +"What did they do?" + +Septimus narrated the burnt umbrella episode and other social experiences. + +"So that when a man comes to see me who does not throw my things about, he +is doubly welcome," he explained. "Besides," he added, after a drink of +coffee, "we said something in Monte Carlo about being friends." + +"We did," said Sypher, "and I'm glad you've not forgotten it. I'm so much +the Friend of Humanity in the bulk that I've somehow been careless as to +the individual." + +"Have a drink," said Septimus, filling his after-breakfast pipe. + +The pistol shot brought Wiggleswick, who, in his turn, brought whiskey and +soda, and the two friends finished the afternoon in great amity. Before +taking his departure Sypher asked whether he might read through the proofs +of the gun book at home. + +"I think I know enough of machinery and mathematics to understand what +you're driving at, and I should like to examine these guns of yours. You +think they are going to whip creation?" + +"They'll make warfare too dangerous to be carried on. At present, however, +I'm more interested in my railway carriages." + +"Which will make railway traveling too dangerous to be carried on!" +laughed Sypher, extending his hand. "Good-by." + +When he had gone, Septimus mused for some time in happy contentment over +his pipe. He asked very little of the world, and oddly enough the world +rewarded his modesty by giving him more than he asked for. To-day he had +seen Sypher in a new mood, sympathetic, unegotistical, non-robustious, and +he felt gratified at having won a man's friendship. It was an addition to +his few anchorages in life. Then, in a couple of hours he would sun himself +in the smiles of his adored mistress, and listen to the prattle of his +other friend, Emmy. Mrs. Oldrieve would be knitting by the lamp, and +probably he would hold her wool, drop it, and be scolded as if he were a +member of the family; all of which was a very gracious thing to the +sensitive, lonely man, warming his heart and expanding his nature. It +filled his head with dreams: of a woman dwelling by right in this house of +his, and making the air fragrant by her presence. But as the +woman--although he tried his utmost to prevent it and to conjure up the +form of a totally different type--took the shape of Zora Middlemist, he +discouraged such dreams as making more for mild unhappiness than for joy, +and bent his thoughts to his guns and railway carriages and other +world-upheaving inventions. The only thing that caused him any uneasiness +was an overdraft at his bank due to cover which he had to pay on shares +purchased for him by a circularizing bucket-shop keeper. It had seemed so +simple to write Messrs. Shark & Co., or whatever alias the philanthropic +financier assumed, a check for a couple of hundred pounds, and receive +Messrs. Shark's check for two thousand in a fortnight, that he had +wondered why other people did not follow this easy road to fortune. +Perhaps they did, he reflected: that was how they managed to keep a large +family of daughters and a motor car. But when the shark conveyed to him in +unintelligible terms the fact that unless he wrote a check for two or three +hundred pounds more his original stake would be lost, and when these also +fell through the bottomless bucket of Messrs. Shark & Co. and his bankers +called his attention to an overdrawn account, it began to dawn upon him +that these were not the methods whereby a large family of daughters and a +motor car were unprecariously maintained. The loss did not distress him to +the point of sleeplessness; his ideas as to the value of money were as +vague as his notions on the rearing of babies; but he was publishing his +book at his own expense, and was concerned at not being in a position to +pay the poor publisher immediately. + +At Mrs. Oldrieve's he found his previsions nearly all fulfilled. Zora, with +a sofa-ful of railway time-tables and ocean-steamer handbooks, sought his +counsel as to a voyage round the world which she had in contemplation; Mrs. +Oldrieve impressed on his memory a recipe for an omelette which he was to +convey verbally to Wiggleswick, although he confessed that the only +omelette that Wiggleswick had tried to make they had used for months +afterwards as a kettle-holder; but Emmy did not prattle. She sat in a +corner, listlessly turning over the leaves of a novel and taking an +extraordinary lack of interest in the general conversation. The usual +headache and neuralgia supplied her excuse. She looked pale, ill, and +worried; and worry on a baby face is a lugubrious and pitiful spectacle. + +After Mrs. Oldrieve had retired for the night, and while Zora happened to +be absent from the room in search of an atlas, Septimus and Emmy were left +alone for a moment. + +"I'm so sorry you have a headache," said Septimus sympathetically. "Why +don't you go to bed?" + +"I hate bed. I can't sleep," she replied, with an impatient shake of the +body. "You mustn't mind me. I'm sorry I'm so rotten--ah! well then--such an +uninspiring companion, if you like," she added, seeing that the word had +jarred on him. Then she rose. "I suppose I bore you. I had better go, as +you suggest, and get out of the way." + +He intercepted her petulant march to the door. + +"I wish you'd tell me what's the matter. It isn't only a headache." + +"It's Hell and the Devil and all his angels," said Emmy, "and I'd like to +murder somebody." + +"You can murder me, if it would do you any good," said Septimus. + +"I believe you'd let me," she said, yielding. "You're a good sort." She +turned, with a short laugh, her novel held in both hands behind her back, +one finger holding the place. A letter dropped from it. Septimus picked it +up and handed it to her. It bore an Italian stamp and the Naples postmark. + +"Yes. That's from him," she said resentfully. "I've not had a letter for a +week, and now he writes to say he has gone to Naples on account of his +health. You had better let me go, my good Septimus; if I stay here much +longer I'll be talking slush and batter. I've got things on my nerves." + +"Why don't you talk to Zora?" he suggested. "She is so wonderful." + +"She's the last person in the world that must know anything. Do you +understand? The very last." + +"I'm afraid I don't understand," he replied ruefully. + +"She doesn't know anything about Mordaunt Prince. She must never know. +Neither must mother. They don't often talk much about the family; but +they're awfully proud of it. Mother's people date from before Noah, and +they look down on the Oldrieves because they sprang up like mushrooms just +after the Flood. Prince's real name is Huzzle, and his father kept a boot +shop. I don't care a hang, because he's a gentleman, but they would." + +"But yet you're going to marry him. They must know sooner or later. They +ought to know." + +"Time enough when I'm married. Then nothing can be done and nothing can be +said." + +"Have you ever thought whether it wouldn't be well to give him up?" said +Septimus, in his hesitating way. + +"I can't, I can't!" she cried. Then she burst into tears, and, afraid lest +Zora should surprise her, left the room without another word. + +On such occasions the most experienced man is helpless. He shrugs his +shoulders, says "Whew!" and lights a cigarette. Septimus, with an infant's +knowledge of the ways of young women, felt terribly distressed by the +tragedy of her tears. Something must be done to stop them. He might start +at once for Naples, and, by the help of strong gendarmes whom he might +suborn, bring back Mordaunt Prince presently to London. Then he remembered +his overdrawn banking account, and sighfully gave up the idea. If only he +were not bound to secrecy and could confide in Zora. This a sensitive honor +forbade. What could he do? As the fire was getting low he mechanically put +on a lump of coal with the pincers. When Zora returned with the atlas she +found him rubbing them through his hair, and staring at vacancy. + +"If I do go round the world," said Zora, a little while later, when they +had settled on which side of South America Valparaiso was situated--and how +many nice and clever people could tell you positively, offhand?--"if I go +round the world, you and Emmy will have to come too. It would do her good. +She has not been looking well lately." + +"It would be the very thing for her," said he. + +"And for you too, Septimus," she remarked, with a quizzical glance and +smile. + +"It's always good for me to be where you are." + +"I was thinking of Emmy and not of myself," she laughed. "If you could take +care of her, it would be an excellent thing for you." + +"She wouldn't even trust me with her luggage," said Septimus, miles away +from Zora's meaning. "Would you?" + +She laughed again. "I'm different. I should really have to look after the +two of you. But you could pretend to be taking care of Emmy." + +"I would do anything that gave you pleasure." + +"Would you?" she asked. + +They were sitting by the table--the atlas between them. She moved her hand +and touched his. The light of the lamp shone through her hair, turning it +to luminous gold. Her arm was bare to the elbow, and the warm fragrance of +her nearness overspread him. The touch thrilled him to the depths, and he +flushed to his upstanding Struwel Peter hair. He tried to say something--he +knew not what; but his throat was smitten with sudden dryness. It seemed to +him that he had sat there, for the best part of an hour, tongue-tied, +looking stupidly at the confluence of the blue veins on her arm, longing to +tell her that his senses swam with the temptation of her touch and the rise +and fall of her bosom, through the great love he had for her, and yet +terror-stricken lest she might discover his secret, and punish his audacity +according to the summary methods of Juno, Diana, and other offended +goddesses whom mortals dared to love. It could only have been a few +seconds, for he heard her voice in his ears, at first faint and then +gathering distinctness, continuing in almost the same breath as her +question. + +"Would you? Do you know the greatest pleasure you could give me? It would +be to become my brother--my real brother." + +He turned bewildered eyes upon her. + +"Your brother?" + +She laughed, half impatiently, half gaily, gave his hand a final tap and +rose. He stood, too, mechanically. + +"I think you're the obtusest man I've ever met. Anyone else would have +guessed long ago. Don't you see, you dear, foolish thing"--she laid her +hands on his shoulders and looked with agonizing deliciousness into his +face--"don't you see that you want a wife to save you from omelettes that +you have to use as kettle-holders, and to give you a sense of +responsibility? And don't you see that Emmy, who is never happier than +when--oh!" she broke off impatiently, "don't you see?" + +He had built for himself no card house of illusion, so it did not come +toppling down with dismaying clatter. But all the same he felt as if her +kind hands had turned death cold and were wringing his heart. He took them +from his shoulders, and, not unpicturesquely, kissed her finger-tips. Then +he dropped them and walked to the fire and, with his back to the room, +leaned on the mantelpiece. A little china dog fell with a crash into the +fender. + +"Oh, I'm so sorry--" he began piteously. + +"Never mind," said Zora, helping him to pick up the pieces. "A man who can +kiss a woman's hands like that is at liberty to clear the whole house of +gimcrackery." + +"You are a very gracious lady. I said so long ago," replied Septimus. + +"I think I'm a fool," said Zora. + +His face assumed a look of horror. His goddess a fool? She laughed gaily. + +"You look as if you were about to remark, 'If any man had said that, the +word would have been his last'! But I am, really. I thought there might be +something between you and Emmy and that a little encouragement might help +you. Forgive me. You see," she went on, a trace of dewiness in her frank +eyes, "I love Emmy dearly, and in a sort of way I love you, too. And need I +give any more explanation?" + +It was an honorable amends, royally made. Zora had a magnificent style in +doing such things: an indiscreet, venturesome, meddlesome princess she +might be, if you will; somewhat unreserved, somewhat too conscious of her +own Zoraesque sufficiency to possess the true womanly intuition and +sympathy; but still a princess who had the grand manner in her scorn of +trivialities. Septimus's hand shook a little as he fitted the tail to the +hollow bit of china dog-end. It was sweet to be loved, although it was +bitter to be loved in a sort of way. Even a man like Septimus Dix has his +feelings. He had to hide them. + +"You make me very happy," he said. "Your caring so much for me as to wish +me to marry your sister, I shall never forget it. You see, I've never +thought of her in that way. I suppose I don't think of women at all in that +way," he went on, with a certain splendid mendacity. "It's a case of +cog-wheels instead of corpuscles. I'm just a heathen bit of machinery, with +my head full of diagrams." + +"You're a tender-hearted baby," said Zora. "Give me those bits of dog." + +She took them from his hand and threw the mutilated body into the fire. + +"See," she said, "let us keep tokens. I'll keep the head and you the tail. +If ever you want me badly send me the tail, and I'll come to you from any +distance--and if I want you I'll send you the head." + +"I'll come to you from the ends of the earth," said Septimus. + +So he went home a happy man, with his tail in his pocket. + + * * * * * + +The next morning, about eight o'clock, just as he was sinking into his +first sleep, he was awakened through a sudden dream of battle by a series +of revolver shots. Wondering whether Wiggleswick had gone mad or was +attempting an elaborate and painful mode of suicide, he leaped out of bed +and rushed to the landing. + +"What's the matter?" + +"Hello! You're up at last!" cried Clem Sypher, appearing at the bottom of +the stairs, sprucely attired for the city, and wearing a flower in the +buttonhole of his overcoat. "I've had to break open the front door in order +to get in at all, and then I tried shooting the bell for your valet. Can I +come up?" + +"Do," said Septimus, shivering. "Do you mind if I go back to bed?" + +"Do anything, except go to sleep," said Sypher. "Look here. I'm sorry if I +disturbed you, but I couldn't wait. I'm off to the office and heaven knows +when I shall be back. I want to talk to you about this." + +He sat on the foot of the bed and threw the proofs of the gun book on to +Septimus's body, vaguely outlined beneath the clothes. In the gray November +light--Zora's carefully chosen curtains and blinds had not been +drawn--Sypher, pink and shiny, his silk hat (which he wore) a resplendent +miracle of valetry, looked an urban yet roseate personification of Dawn. He +seemed as eager as Septimus was supine. + +"I've sat up half the night over this thing," said he, "and I really +believe you've got it." + +"Got what?" asked Septimus. + +"_It_. The biggest thing on earth, bar Sypher's Cure." + +"Wait till I've worked out my railway carriages," said Septimus. + +"Your railway carriages! Good gracious! Haven't you any sense of what +you're doing? Here you've worked out a scheme that may revolutionize naval +gunnery, and you talk rot about railway carriages." + +"I'm glad you like the book," said Septimus. + +"Are you going to publish it?" + +"Of course." + +"Ask your publisher how much he'll take to let you off your bargain." + +"I'm publishing it at my own expense," said Septimus, in the middle of a +yawn. + +"And presenting it gratis to the governments of the world?" + +"Yes. I might send them copies," said Septimus. "It's a good idea." + +Clem Sypher thrust his hat to the back of his head, and paced the room +from the wash-stand past the dressing-table to the wardrobe and back again. + +"Well, I'm hanged!" said he. + +Septimus asked why. + +"I thought I was a philanthropist," said Sypher, "but by the side of you +I'm a vulture. Has it not struck you that, if the big gun is what I think, +any government on earth would give you what you like to ask for the +specification?" + +"Really? Do you think they would give me a couple of hundred pounds?" asked +Septimus, thinking vaguely of Mordaunt Prince in Naples and his overdrawn +banking account. The anxiety of his expression was not lost on Sypher. + +"Are you in need of a couple of hundred pounds?" he asked. + +"Until my dividends are due. I've been speculating, and I'm afraid I +haven't a head for business." + +"I'm afraid you haven't," grinned Sypher, leaning over the footrail of the +bed. "Next time you speculate come to me first for advice. Let me be your +agent for these guns, will you?" + +"I should be delighted," said Septimus, "and for the railway carriages too. +There's also a motor car I've invented which goes by clockwork. You've got +to wind it by means of a donkey engine. It's quite simple." + +"I should think it would be," said Sypher drily. "But I'll only take on the +guns just for the present." + +He drew a check book from one pocket and a fountain pen from another. + +"I'll advance you two hundred pounds for the sole right to deal with the +thing on your behalf. My solicitors will send you a document full of +verbiage which you had better send off to your solicitor to look through +before you sign it. It will be all right. I'm going to take the proofs. Of +course this stops publishing," he remarked, looking round from the +dressing-table where he was writing the check. + +Septimus assented and took the check wonderingly, remarking that he didn't +in the least know what it was for. + +"For the privilege of making your fortune. Good-by," said he. "Don't get +up." + +"Good night," said Septimus, and the door having closed behind Clem Sypher, +he thrust the check beneath the bedclothes, curled himself up and went to +sleep like a dormouse. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Clem Sypher stood at the front door of Penton Court a day or two +afterwards, awaiting his guests and taking the air. The leaves of the oaks +that lined the drive fell slowly under the breath of a southwest wind, and +joined their sodden brethren on the path. The morning mist still hung +around the branches. The sky threatened rain. + +A servant came from within the house, bringing a telegram on a tray. Sypher +opened it, and his strong, pink face became as overcast as the sky. It was +from the London office of the Cure, and contained the information that one +of his largest buyers had reduced his usual order by half. The news was +depressing. So was the prospect before him, of dripping trees and of +evergreens on the lawn trying to make the best of it in forlorn bravery. +Heaven had ordained that the earth should be fair and Sypher's Cure +invincible. Something was curiously wrong in the execution of Heaven's +decrees. He looked again at the preposterous statement, knitting his brow. +Surely this was some base contrivance of the enemy. They had been +underselling and outadvertising him for months, and had ousted him from the +custom of several large firms already. Something had to be done. As has +been remarked before, Sypher was a man of Napoleonic methods. He called for +a telegraph form, and wrote as he stood, with the tray as a desk: + +"If you can't buy advertising rights on St. Paul's Cathedral or +Westminster Abbey, secure outside pages of usual dailies for Thursday. Will +draw up 'ad' myself." + +He gave it to the servant, smiled in anticipation of the battle, and felt +better. When Zora, Emmy, and Septimus appeared at the turn of the drive, he +rushed to meet them, beaming with welcome and exuberant in phrase. This was +the best housewarming that could be imagined. Just three friends to +luncheon--three live people. A gathering of pale-souled folk would have +converted the house into a chilly barn. They would warm it with the glow of +friendship. Mrs. Middlemist, looking like a rose in June, had already +irradiated the wan November garden. Miss Oldrieve he likened to a spring +crocus, and Septimus (with a slap on the back) could choose the vegetable +he would like to resemble. They must look over the house before lunch. +Afterwards, outside, the great surprise awaited them. What was it? Ah! He +turned laughing eyes on them, like a boy. + +The great London firm to whom he had entrusted the furniture and decoration +had done their splendid worst. The drawing-room had the appearance of an +hotel sitting-room trying to look coy. An air of factitious geniality +pervaded the dining-room. An engraving of Frans Hals's "Laughing Cavalier" +hung with too great a semblance of jollity over the oak sideboard. +Everything was too new, too ordered, too unindividual; but Sypher loved it, +especially the high-art wall-paper and restless frieze. Zora, a woman of +instinctive taste, who, if she bought a bedroom water-bottle, managed to +identify it with her own personality, professed her admiration with a +woman's pitying mendacity, but resolved to change many things for the good +of Clem Sypher's soul. Emmy, still pale and preoccupied, said little. She +was not in a mood to appreciate Clem Sypher, whose loud voice and +Napoleonic manners jarred upon her nerves. Septimus thought it all +prodigiously fine, whereat Emmy waxed sarcastic. + +"I wish I could do something for you," he said, heedless of her taunts, +during a moment when they were out of earshot of the others. He had already +offered to go to Naples and bring back Mordaunt Prince, and had received +instant orders not to be a fool. "I wish I could make you laugh again." + +"I don't want to laugh," she replied impatiently. "I want to sit on the +floor and howl." + +They happened to be in the hall. At the farther end Septimus caught sight +of a fluffy Persian kitten playing with a bit of paper, and guided by one +of his queer intuitions he went and picked it up and laid its baby softness +against the girl's cheek. Her mood changed magically. + +"Oh, the darling!" she cried, and kissed its tiny, wet nose. + +She was quite polite to Sypher during luncheon, and laughed when he told +her that he called the kitten Jebusa Jones. She asked why. + +"Because," said he, showing his hand covered with scratches, "she produces +on the human epidermis the same effect as his poisonous cuticle remedy." + +Whereupon Emmy decided that the man who could let a kitten scratch his hand +in that fashion had elements of good in his nature. + +"Now for the surprise," said Sypher, when Septimus and he joined the ladies +after lunch. "Come." + +They followed him outside, through the French windows of the drawing-room. +"Other people," said he, "want houses with lawns reaching down to the side +of the river or the Menai Straits or Windermere. I'm the only person, I +think, who has ever sought for a lawn running down to a main line of +railway." + +"That's why this house was untenanted so long," said Zora. + +A row of trees separated the small garden from the lawn in question. When +they passed through this screen, the lawn and the line of railway and the +dreamy, undulating Surrey country came into view. Also an enormous board. +Why hadn't he taken it down, Zora asked. + +"That's the surprise!" exclaimed Sypher eagerly. "Come round to the front." + +He led the way, striding some yards ahead. Presently he turned and struck a +dramatic attitude, as a man might do who had built himself a new wonder +house. And then on three astonished pairs of eyes burst the following +inscription in gigantic capitals which he who flew by in an express train +could read: + + SYPHER'S CURE! + Clem Sypher. Friend of Humanity! + I LIVE HERE! + +"Isn't that great?" he cried. "I've had it in my mind for years. It's the +personal note that's so valuable. This brings the whole passing world into +personal contact with me. It shows that Sypher's Cure isn't a quack thing +run by a commercial company, but the possession of a man who has a house, +who lives in the very house you can see through the trees. 'What kind of a +man is he?' they ask. 'He must be a nice man to live in such a nice house. +I almost feel I know him. _I'll try his Cure_.' Don't you think it's a +colossal idea?" + +He looked questioningly into three embarrassed faces. Emmy, in spite of her +own preoccupation, suppressed a giggle. There was a moment's silence, which +was broken by Septimus's mild voice: + +"I think, by means of levers running down to the line and worked by the +trains as they passed, I could invent a machine for throwing little boxes +of samples from the board into the railway carriage windows." + +Emmy burst out laughing. "Come and show me how you would do it." + +She linked her arm in his and dragged him down to the line, where she spoke +with mirthful disrespect of Sypher's Cure. Meanwhile Zora said nothing to +Sypher. + +"Don't you like it?" he asked at last, disconcerted. + +"Do you want me to be the polite lady you've asked to lunch or your +friend?" + +"My friend and my helper," said he. + +"Then," she replied, touching his coat sleeve, "I must say that I don't +like it. I hate it. I think it's everything that is most abominable." + +The board was one pride of his heart, and Zora was another. He looked at +them both alternately in a piteous, crestfallen way. + +"But why?" he asked. + +Zora's eyes filled with tears. She saw that her lack of appreciation had +hurt him to the heart. She was a generous woman, and did not convict him, +as she would have done another man, of blatant vulgarity. Yet she felt +preposterously pained. Why could not this great, single-minded creature, +with ideas as high as they were queer, perceive the board's rank +abomination? + +"It's unworthy of you," she said bravely. "I want everyone to respect you +as I do. You see the Cure isn't everything. There's a man behind it." + +"That's the object of the board," said Sypher. "To show the man." + +"But it doesn't show the chivalrous gentleman that I think you are," she +replied quickly. "It gives the impression of some one quite different--a +horrid creature who would sell his self-respect for money. Oh, don't you +understand? It's as bad as walking through the streets with 'Sypher's Cure' +painted on your hat." + +"What can I do about it?" he asked. + +"Take it down at once," said Zora. + +"But to exhibit the board was my sole reason for buying the place." + +"I'm very sorry," she said gently, "but I can't change my opinion." + +He cast a lingering glance at the board, and then turned. "Let us go back +to the house," he said. + +They walked a little way in silence. As they passed by the shrubbery at the +side of the house, he gravely pushed aside a wet, hanging branch for her to +proceed dry. Then he joined her again. + +"You are angry with me for speaking so," said Zora. + +He stopped and looked at her, his eyes bright and clear. "Do you think I'm +a born fool? Do you think I can't tell loyalty when I see it, and am such +an ass as not to prize it above all things? It cost you a lot to say that +to me. You're right. I suppose I've lost sense of myself in the Cure. When +I think of it, I seem just to be the machine that is distributing it over +the earth. And that, too, I suppose, is why I want you. The board is an +abomination that cries to heaven. It shall be instantly removed. There!" + +He held out his hand. She gave him hers and he pressed it warmly. + +"Are you going to give up the house now that it's useless?" she asked. + +"Do you wish me to?" + +"What have I to do with it?" + +"Zora Middlemist," said he, "I'm a superstitious man in some things. You +have everything to do with my success. Sooner than forfeit your respect I +would set fire to every stick I possessed. I would give up everything I had +in the world except my faith in the Cure." + +"Wouldn't you give up that--if it were necessary so as to keep my respect?" +she asked, prompted by the insane devil that lurks in the heart of even the +most sainted of women and does not like its gracious habitat to be reckoned +lower than a quack ointment. It is the same little devil that makes a young +wife ask her devoted husband which of the two he would save if she and his +mother were drowning. It is the little devil that is responsible for +infinite mendacity on the part of men. "Have you ever said that to another +woman?" No; of course he hasn't; and the wretch is instantly, perjured. +"Would you sell your soul for me?" "My immortal soul," says the good +fellow, instantaneously converted into an atrocious liar; and the little +devil coos with satisfaction and curls himself up snugly to sleep. + +But on this occasion the little devil had no success. + +"I would give up my faith in the Cure for nothing in the wide world," said +Sypher gravely. + +"I'm very glad to hear it," said Zora, in her frankest tone. But the +little devil asked her whether she was quite sure; whereupon she hit him +smartly over the head and bade him lie down. Her respect, however, for +Sypher increased. + +They were joined by Emmy and Septimus. + +"I think I could manage it," said the latter, "if I cut a hole a foot +square in the board and fixed a magazine behind it." + +"There will be no necessity," returned Sypher. "Mrs. Middlemist has ordered +its immediate removal." + +That was the end of the board episode. The next day he had it taken down +and chopped into fire-wood, a cart-load of which he sent with his humble +compliments to Mrs. Middlemist. Zora called it a burnt offering. She found +more satisfaction in the blaze that roared up the chimney than she could +explain to her mother; perhaps more than she could explain to herself. +Septimus had first taught her the pleasantness of power. But that was +nothing to this. Anybody, even Emmy, curly-headed baby that she was, could +turn poor Septimus into a slave. For a woman to impose her will upon Clem +Sypher, Friend of Humanity, the Colossus of Curemongers, was no such +trumpery achievement. + +Emmy, when she referred to the matter, expressed the hope that Zora had +rubbed it into Clem Sypher. Zora deprecated the personal bearing of the +slang metaphor, but admitted, somewhat grandly, that she had pointed out +the error in taste. + +"I can't see, though, why you take all this trouble over Mr. Sypher," said +Emmy. + +"I value his friendship," replied Zora, looking up from a letter she was +reading. + +This was at breakfast. When the maid had entered with the post Emmy had +gripped the table and watched with hungry eyes, but the only letter that +had come for her had been on theatrical business. Not the one she longed +for. Emmy's world was out of joint. + +"You've changed your opinion, my dear, as to the value of men," she +sneered. "There was a time when you didn't want to see them or speak to +them or have anything to do with them. Now it seems you can't get on +without them." + +"My dear Emmy," said Zora calmly, "men as possible lovers and men as +staunch friends are two entirely different conceptions." + +Emmy broke a piece of toast viciously. + +"I think they're beasts," she exclaimed. + +"Good heavens! Why?" + +"Oh, I don't know. They are." + +Then, after the quick, frightened glance of the woman who fears she has +said too much, she broke into a careless half-laugh. + +"They are such liars. Fawcett promised me a part in his new production and +writes to-day to say I can't have it." + +As Emmy's professional disappointments had been many, and as Zora in her +heart of hearts did not entirely approve of her sister's musical-comedy +career, she tempered her sympathy with philosophic reflections. She had +never taken Emmy seriously. All her life long Emmy had been the kitten +sister, with a kitten's pretty but unimportant likes, dislikes, habits, +occupations, and aspirations. To regard her as being under the shadow of a +woman's tragedy had never entered her head. The kitten playing Antigone, +Ophelia, or such like distressed heroines, in awful, grim earnest is not a +conception that readily occurs even to the most affectionate and +imaginative of kitten owners. Zora accepted Emmy's explanation of her +petulance with a spirit entirely unperturbed, and resumed the perusal of +her letter. It was from the Callenders, who wrote from California. Zora +must visit them on her way round the world. + +She laid down the letter and stirred her tea absently, her mind full of +snow-capped sierras, and clear blue air, and peach forests, and all the +wonders of that wonderland. And Emmy stirred her tea, too, in an absent +manner, but her mind was filled with the most terrible thoughts wherewith a +woman's mind can be haunted. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Septimus had never seen a woman faint before. At first he thought Emmy was +dead, and rubbed agonized hands together like a fly. When he realized what +had happened, he produced a large jack-knife which he always carried in his +trousers pocket--for the purpose, he explained, of sharpening pencils--and +offered it to Zora with the vague idea that the first aid to fainting women +consisted in cutting their stay-laces. Zora rebuked him for futility, and +bade him ring the bell for the maid. + +It was all very sudden. The scene had been one that of late had grown so +familiar: Zora and Septimus poring over world itineraries, the latter full +of ineffectual suggestion and irrelevant reminiscence, and Emmy reading by +the fire. On this occasion it was the _Globe_ newspaper which Septimus, who +had spent the day in London on an unexecuted errand to his publisher, had +brought back with him. Evening papers being luxuries in Nunsmere, he had +hidden it carefully from Wiggleswick, in order to present it to the ladies. +Suddenly there was a rustle and a slither by the fire-place, and Emmy, in a +dead faint, hung over the arm of the chair. In her hand she grasped the +outer sheet of the paper. The inner sheet, according to the untidy ways of +women with newspapers, lay discarded on the floor. + +With Septimus's help Zora and the maid carried her to the sofa; they opened +the window and gave her smelling salts. Septimus anxiously desired to be +assured that she was not dying, and Zora thanked heaven that her mother +had gone to bed. Presently Emmy recovered consciousness. + +"I must have fainted," she said in a whisper. + +"Yes, dear," said Zora, kneeling by her side. "Are you better?" + +Emmy stared past Zora at something unseen and terrifying. + +"It was foolish. The heat, I suppose. Mr. Sypher's burning board." She +turned an appealing glance to Septimus. "Did I say anything silly?" + +When he told her that she had slipped over the arm of the chair without a +word, she looked relieved and closed her eyes. As soon as she had revived +sufficiently she allowed herself to be led up-stairs; but before going she +pressed Septimus's hand with feverish significance. + +Even to so inexperienced a mind as his the glance and the hand-shake +conveyed a sense of trust, suggested dimly a reason for the fainting fit. +Once more he stood alone and perplexed in the little drawing-room. Once +more he passed his long fingers through his Struwel Peter hair and looked +about the room for inspiration. Finding none, he mechanically gathered up +the two parts of the newspaper, with a man's instinct for tidiness in +printed matter, and smoothed out the crumples that Emmy's hand had made on +the outer sheet. Whilst doing so, a paragraph met his eye, causing him to +stare helplessly at the paper. + +It was the announcement of the marriage of Mordaunt Prince at the British +Consulate in Naples. + +The unutterable perfidy of man! For the first time in his guileless life +Septimus met it face to face. To read of human depravity in the police +reports is one thing, to see it fall like a black shadow across one's life +is another. It horrified him. Mordaunt Prince had committed the +unforgivable sin. He had stolen a girl's love, and basely, meanly, he had +slunk off, deceiving her to the last. To Septimus the lover who kissed and +rode away had ever appeared a despicable figure of romance. The fellow who +did it in real life proclaimed himself an unconscionable scoundrel. The +memory of Emmy's forget-me-not blue eyes turning into sapphires as she sang +the villain's praises smote him. He clenched his fists and put to +incoherent use his limited vocabulary of anathema. Then fearing, in his +excited state, to meet Zora, lest he should betray the miserable secret, he +stuffed the newspaper into his pocket, and crept out of the house. + +Before his own fire he puzzled over the problem. Something must be done. +But what? Hale Mordaunt Prince from his bride's arms and bring him penitent +to Nunsmere? What would be the good of that, seeing that polygamy is not +openly sanctioned by Western civilization? Proceed to Naples and chastise +him? That were better. The monster deserved it. But how are men chastised? +Septimus had no experience. He reflected vaguely that people did this sort +of thing with a horsewhip. He speculated on the kind of horsewhip that +would be necessary. A hunting crop with no lash would not be more effective +than an ordinary walking stick. With a lash it would be cumbrous, unless he +kept at an undignified distance and flicked at his victim as the +ring-master in the circus flicks at the clown. Perhaps horsewhips for this +particular purpose could be obtained from the Army and Navy Stores. It +should be about three feet long, flexible and tapering to a point. +Unconsciously his inventive faculty began to work. When he had devised an +adequate instrument, made of fine steel wires ingeniously plaited, he +awoke, somewhat shame-facedly, to the commonplaces of the original problem. +What was to be done? + +He pondered for some hours, then he sighed and sought consolation in his +bassoon; but after a few bars of "Annie Laurie" he put the unedifying +instrument back in its corner and went out for a walk. It was a starry +night of frost. Nunsmere lay silent as Bethlehem; and a star hung low in +the east. Far away across the common gleamed one solitary light in the +vicarage windows; the Vicar, good gentleman, finishing his unruffled sermon +while his parish slept. Otherwise darkness spread over everything save the +sky. Not a creature on the road, not a creature on the common, not even the +lame donkey. Incredibly distant the faint sound of a railway whistle +intensified the stillness. Septimus's own footsteps on the crisp grass rang +loud in his ears. Yet both stillness and darkness felt companionable, in +harmony with the starlit dimness of the man's mind. His soul was having its +adventure while mystery filled the outer air. He walked on, wrapped in the +nebulous fantasies which passed with him for thought, heedless, as he +always was, of the flight of time. Once he halted by the edge of the pond, +and, sitting on a bench, lit and smoked his pipe until the cold forced him +to rise. With an instinctive desire to hear some earthly sound, he picked +up a stone and threw it into the water. He shivered at the ghostly splash +and moved away, himself an ineffectual ghost wandering aimlessly in the +night. + +The Vicar's lamp had been extinguished long ago. A faint breeze sprang up. +The star sank lower in the sky. Suddenly, as he turned back from the road +to cross the common for the hundredth time, he became aware that he was +not alone. Footsteps rather felt than heard were in front of him. He +pressed forward and peered through the darkness, and finally made out a dim +form some thirty yards away. Idly he followed and soon recognized the +figure as that of a woman hurrying fast. Why a woman should be crossing +Nunsmere Common at four o'clock in the morning passed his power of +conjecture. She was going neither to nor from the doctor, whose house lay +behind the vicarage on the right. All at once her objective became clear to +him. He thought of the splash of the stone. She was making straight for the +pond. He hastened his pace, came up within a few yards of her and then +stopped dead. It was Emmy. He recognized the zibeline toque and coat edged +with the same fur which she often wore. She carried something in her hand, +he could not tell what. + +She went on, unconscious of his nearness. He followed her, horror-stricken. +Emmy, a new Ophelia, was about to seek a watery grave for herself and her +love sorrow. Again came the problem which in moments of emergency Septimus +had never learned to solve. What should he do? Across the agony of his mind +shot a feeling of horrible indelicacy in thrusting himself upon a woman at +such a moment. He was half tempted to turn back and leave her to the +sanctity of her grief. But again the splash echoed in his ears and again he +shivered. The water was so black and cold. And what could he say to Zora? +The thought lashed his pace to sudden swiftness and Emmy turned with a +little scream of fear. + +"Who are you?" + +"It's I, Septimus," he stammered, taking hold of his cap. "For God's sake, +don't do it." + +"I shall. Go away. How dare you spy on me?" + +She stood and faced him, and her features were just discernible in the dim +starlight. Anger rang in her voice. She stamped her foot. + +"How dare you?" + +"I haven't been spying on you," he explained. "I only recognized you a +couple of minutes ago. I was walking about--taking a stroll before +breakfast, you know." + +"Oh!" she said, stonily. + +"I'm dreadfully sorry to have intruded upon you," he continued, twirling +his cap nervously in his fingers while the breeze played through his +upstanding hair. "I didn't mean to--but I couldn't stand by and let you do +it. I couldn't, really." + +"Do what?" she asked, still angry. Septimus did not know that beneath the +fur-lined jacket her heart was thumping madly. + +"Drown yourself," said Septimus. + +"In the pond?" she laughed hysterically. "In three feet of water? How do +you think I was going to manage it?" + +Septimus reflected. He had not thought of the pond's inadequate depth. + +"You might have lain down at the bottom until it was all over," he remarked +in perfect seriousness. "I once heard of a servant girl who drowned herself +in a basin of water." + +Emmy turned impatiently and, walking on, waved him away; but he accompanied +her mechanically. + +"Oh, don't follow me," she cried in a queer voice. "Leave me alone, for +God's sake. I'm not going to commit suicide. I wish to heaven I had the +pluck." + +"But if you're not going to do that, why on earth are you here?" + +"I'm taking a stroll before breakfast--just like yourself. Why am I here? +If you really want to know," she added defiantly, "I'm going to London--by +the early train from Hensham--the milk train. See, I'm respectable. I have +my luggage." She swung something in the dark before him and he perceived +that it was a handbag. "Now are you satisfied? Or do you think I was going +to take a handkerchief and a powder puff into the other world with me? I'm +just simply going to London--nothing more." + +"But it's a seven-mile walk to Hensham." + +She made no reply, but quickened her pace. Septimus, in a whirl of doubt +and puzzledom, walked by her side, still holding his cap in his hand. Even +the intelligence of the local policeman would have connected her astounding +appearance on the common with the announcement in the _Globe_. He took that +for granted. But if she were not about to destroy herself, why this +untimely flight to London? Why walk seven miles in wintry darkness when she +could have caught a train at Ripstead (a mile away) a few hours later, in +orthodox comfort? It was a mystery, a tragic and perplexing mystery. + +They passed by the pond in silence, crossed the common and reached the main +road. + +"I wish I knew what to do, Emmy," he said at last. "I hate forcing my +company upon you, and yet I feel I should be doing wrong to leave you +unprotected. You see, I should not be able to face Zora." + +"You had better face her as late as possible," she replied quickly. +"Perhaps you had better walk to the station with me. Would you?" + +"It would ease my mind." + +"All right. Only, for God's sake, don't chatter. I don't want you of all +people to get on my nerves." + +"Let me carry your bag," said Septimus, "and you had better have my +stick." + +The process of transference brought to his consciousness the fact of his +bareheadedness. He put on his cap and they trudged along the road like +gipsy man and wife, saying not a word to each other. For two miles they +proceeded thus, sometimes in utter blackness when the road wound between +thick oak plantations, sometimes in the lesser dimness of the open when it +passed by the rolling fields; and not a sign of human life disturbed the +country stillness. Then they turned into the London road and passed through +a village. Lights were in the windows. One cottage door stood open. A shaft +of light streamed across Emmy's face, and Septimus caught a glimpse of +drawn and haggard misery. They went on for another mile. Now and then a +laborer passed them with an unsurprised greeting. A milkcart rattled by and +then all was silence again. Gradually the stars lost brilliance. + +All of a sudden, at the foot of a rise crowned by a cottage looming black +against the sky, Emmy broke down and cast herself on a heap of stones by +the side of the road, a helpless bundle of sobs and incoherent +lamentations. She could bear it no longer. Why had he not spoken to her? +She could go no further. She wished she were dead. What was going to become +of her? How could he walk by her side saying nothing, like a dumb jailer? +He had better go back to Nunsmere and leave her to die by the wayside. It +was all she asked of Heaven. + +"Oh, God have pity on me," she moaned, and rocked herself to and fro. + +Septimus stood for a time tongue-tied in acute distress. This was his first +adventure in knight-errantry and he had served before neither as page nor +squire. He would have given his head to say the unknown words that might +comfort her. All he could do was to pat her on the shoulder in a futile way +and bid her not to cry, which, as all the world knows, is the greatest +encouragement to further shedding of tears a weeping woman can have. Emmy +sobbed more bitterly than ever. Once more on that night of agonizing +dubiety, what was to be done? He looked round desperately for guidance, +and, as he looked, a light appeared in the window of the hilltop cottage. + +"Perhaps," said he, "if I knock at the door up there, they can give you a +glass of milk. Or a cup of tea," he added, brightening with the glow of +inspiration. "Or they may be able to let you lie down for a while." + +But Emmy shook her head miserably. Milk, tea, recumbent luxury were as +nothing to her. Neither poppy nor mandragora (or words to that effect) +could give her ease again. And she couldn't walk four miles, and she must +catch the morning train. + +"If you'll tell me what I can do," said Septimus, "I'll do it." + +A creaky rumble was heard in the distance and presently they made out a +cart coming slowly down the hill. Septimus had another brilliant idea. + +"Let me put you into that and take you back to Nunsmere." + +She sprang to her feet and clutched his arm. + +"Never. Never, do you hear? I couldn't bear it. Mother, Zora--I couldn't +see them again. Last night they nearly drove me into hysterics. What do you +suppose I came out for at this hour, if it wasn't to avoid meeting them? +Let us go on. If I die on the road, so much the better." + +"Perhaps," said Septimus, "I could carry you." + +She softened, linked her arm in his, and almost laughed, as they started up +the hill. + +"What a good fellow you are, and I've been behaving like a beast. Anyone +but you would have worried me with questions--and small wonder. But you +haven't even asked me--" + +"Hush," said Septimus. "I know. I saw the paragraph in the newspaper. Don't +let's talk of it. Let us talk of something else. Do you like honey? The +Great Bear put me in mind. Wiggleswick wants to keep bees. I tell him, if +he does, I'll keep a bear. He could eat the honey, you see. And then I +could teach him to dance by playing the bassoon to him. Perhaps he would +like the bassoon," he continued, after a pause, in his wistful way. "Nobody +else does." + +"If you had it with you now, I should love it for your sake," said Emmy +with a sob. + +"If you would take my advice and rest in the cottage, I could send for it," +he replied unsmilingly. + +"We must catch the train," said Emmy. + +In Wirley, half a mile further, folks were stirring. A cart laden with +market produce waited by a cottage door for the driver who stood swallowing +his final cup of tea. A bare-headed child clung round his leg, an attendant +Hebe. The wanderers halted. + +"If the other cart could have taken us back to Nunsmere," said Septimus, +with the air of a man who has arrived at Truth, "this one can carry us to +the station." + +And so it fell out. The men made Emmy as comfortable as could be among the +cabbages, with some sacks for rugs, and there she lay drowsy with pain and +weariness until they came to the end of their journey. + +A gas-light or two accentuated the murky dismalness of the little station. +Emmy sank exhausted on a bench in the booking hail, numb with cold, and too +woebegone to think of her hair, which straggled limply from beneath the +zibeline toque. Septimus went to the booking office and asked for two +first-class tickets to London. When he joined her again she was crying +softly. + +"You're coming with me? It is good of you." + +"I'm responsible for you to Zora." + +A shaft of jealousy shot through her tears. + +"You always think of Zora." + +"To think of her," replied Septimus, vaguely allusive, "is a liberal +education." + +Emmy shrugged her shoulders. She was not of the type that makes paragons +out of her own sex, and she had also a sisterly knowledge of Zora +unharmonious with Septimus's poetic conception. But she felt too miserable +to argue. She asked him the time. + +At last the train came in. There was a great rattling of milk-cans on the +gloomy platform, and various slouching shapes entered third-class +carriages. The wanderers had the only first-class compartment to +themselves. It struck cold and noisome, like a peculiarly unaired +charnel-house. A feeble lamp, whose effect was dimmed by the swishing dirty +oil in the bottom of the globe, gave a pretense at illumination. The guard +passing by the window turned his lantern on them and paused for a wondering +moment. Were they a runaway couple? If so, thought he, they had arrived at +quick repentance. As they looked too dismal for tips, he concerned himself +with them no more. The train started. Emmy shook with cold, in spite of +her fur-lined jacket. Septimus took off his overcoat and spread it over +their two bodies as they huddled together for warmth. After a while her +head drooped on his shoulder and she slept, while Septimus sucked his empty +pipe, not daring to light it lest he should disturb her slumbers. For the +same reason he forbore to change his original awkward attitude, and in +consequence suffered agonies of pins and needles. To have a solid young +woman asleep in your arms is not the romantic pleasure the poets make out; +for comfort, she might just as well stand on your head. Also, as Emmy +unconsciously drew the overcoat away from him, one side of his body +perished with cold; and a dinner suit is not warm enough for traveling on a +frosty morning. + +The thought of his dinner jacket reminded him of his puzzledom. What were +Emmy and himself doing in that galley of a railway carriage when they might +have been so much more comfortable in their own beds in Nunsmere? It was an +impenetrable mystery to which the sleeping girl who was causing him such +acute though cheerfully borne discomfort alone had the key. In vain did he +propound to himself the theory that such speculation betokened an +indelicate mind; in vain did he ask himself with unwonted severity what +business it was of his; in vain did he try to hitch his thoughts to Patent +Safety Railway Carriages, which were giving him a great deal of trouble; in +vain did he try to sleep. The question haunted him. So much so that when +Emmy awoke and rubbed her eyes, and in some confusion apologized for the +use to which she had put his shoulder, he was almost ashamed to look her in +the face. + +"What are you going to do when you get to Victoria?" Emmy asked. + +Septimus had not thought of it. "Go back to Nunsmere, I suppose, by the +next train--unless you want me?" + +"No, I don't want you," said Emmy absently. "Why should I?" + +And she gazed stonily at the suburban murk of the great city until they +reached Victoria. There, a dejected four-wheeled cab with a drooping horse +stood solitary on the rank--a depressing object. Emmy shivered at the +sight. + +"I can't stand it. Drive me to my door. I know I'm a beast, Septimus dear, +but I am grateful. I am, really." + +The cab received them into its musty interior and drove them through the +foggy brown of a London winter dawn. Unimaginable cheerlessness enveloped +them. The world wore an air of disgust at having to get up on such a +morning. The atmosphere for thirty yards around them was clear enough, with +the clearness of yellow consomme, but ahead it stood thick, like a puree of +bad vegetables. They passed through Belgravia, and the white-blinded houses +gave an impression of universal death, and the empty streets seemed waiting +for the doors to open and the mourners to issue forth. The cab, too, had +something of the sinister, in that it was haunted by the ghosts of a +fourpenny cigar and a sixpenny bottle of scent which continued a lugubrious +flirtation; and the windows rattled a _danse macabre_. At last it pulled up +at the door of Emmy's Mansions in Chelsea. + +She looked at him very piteously, like a frightened child. Her pretty mouth +was never strong, but when the corners drooped it was babyish. She slipped +her hand in his. + +"Don't leave me just yet. It's silly, I know--but this awful journey has +taken everything out of me. Every bit of it has been worse than the last. +Edith--that's my maid--will light a fire--you must get warm before you +start--and she'll make some coffee. Oh, do come. You can keep the cab." + +"But what will your maid think?" asked Septimus, who for all his vagueness +had definite traditions as to the proprieties of life. + +"What does it matter? What does anything in this ghastly world matter? I'm +frightened, Septimus, horribly frightened. I daren't go up by myself. Oh! +Come!" + +Her voice broke on the last word. Saint Anthony would have yielded; also +his pig. Septimus handed her out of the cab, and telling the cabman to +wait, followed her through the already opened front door of the Mansions up +to her flat. She let herself in with her latchkey and showed him into the +drawing-room, turning on the electric light as he entered. + +"I'll go and wake Edith," she said. "Then we can have some breakfast. The +fire's laid. Do you mind putting a match to it?" + +She disappeared and Septimus knelt down before the grate and lit the paper. +In a second or two the flame caught the wood, and, the blower being down, +it blazed fiercely. He spread his ice-cold hands out before it, incurious +of the futile little room whose draperies and fripperies and inconsiderable +flimsiness of furniture proclaimed its owner, intent only on the elemental +need of warmth. He was disturbed by the tornadic entrance of Emmy. + +"She's not here!" she exclaimed tragically. Her baby face was white and +there were dark shadows under the eyes which stared at him with a touch of +madness. "She's not here!" + +"Perhaps she has gone out for a walk," Septimus suggested, as if London +serving-maids were in the habit of taking the air at eight o'clock on a +foggy morning. + +But Emmy heard him not. The dismaying sense of utter loneliness smote her +down. It was the last straw. Edith, on whom she had staked all her hopes of +physical comfort, was not there. Overstrained in body, nerves, and mind, +she sank helplessly in the chair which Septimus set out for her before the +fire, too exhausted to cry. She began to speak in a queer, toneless voice: + +"I don't know what to do. Edith could have helped me. I want to get away +and hide. I can't stay here. It's the first place Zora will come to. She +mustn't find me. Edith has been through it herself. She would have taken me +somewhere abroad or in the country where I could have stayed in hiding till +it was over. It was all so sudden--the news of his marriage. I was half +crazy, I couldn't make plans. I thought Edith would help me. Now she has +gone, goodness knows where. My God, what shall I do?" + +She went on, looking at him haggardly, a creature driven beyond the +reticence of sex, telling her inmost secret to a man as if it were a +commonplace of trouble. It did not occur to her distraught mind that he was +a man. She spoke to herself, without thought, uttering the cry for help +that had been pent within her all that awful night. + +The puzzledom of Septimus grew unbearable in its intensity; then suddenly +it burst like a skyrocket and a blinding rain of fire enveloped him. He +stood paralyzed with pain and horror. + +The sullen morning light diffused itself through the room, mingling +ironically with the pretty glow cast by the pink-shaded electric globes, +while the two forlorn grotesques regarded each other, unconscious of each +other's grotesqueness, the girl disheveled and haggard, the man with rough +gray coat unbuttoned, showing the rumpled evening dress; her toque +miserably awry, his black tie riding above his collar, the bow somewhere +behind his ear. And the tragedy of tragedies of a young girl's life was +unfolded. + +"My God, what am I to do?" + +Septimus stared at her, his hands in his trousers pockets. In one of them +his fingers grasped a folded bit of paper. He drew it out unthinkingly--a +very dirty bit of paper. In his absent-minded way he threw it towards the +fire, but it fell on the tiled hearth. In moments of great strain the mind +seizes with pitiful eagerness on the trivial. Emmy looked at the paper. +Something familiar about its shape struck her. She leaned forward, picked +it up and unfolded it. + +"This is a check," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Did you mean to +throw it away?" + +He took it from her and, looking at it, realized that It was Clem Sypher's +check for two hundred pounds. + +"Thanks," said he, thrusting it into his overcoat pocket. + +Then his queerly working brain focused associations. + +"I know what we can do," said he. "We can go to Naples." + +"What good would that be?" she asked, treating the preposterous question +seriously. + +He was taken aback by her directness, and passed his fingers through his +hair. + +"I don't know," said he. + +"The first thing we must do," said Emmy--and her voice sounded in her own +ears like someone else's--"is to get away from here. Zora will be down by +the first train after my absence is discovered. You quite see that Zora +mustn't find me, don't you?" + +"Of course," said Septimus, blankly. Then he brightened. "You can go to an +hotel. A Temperance Hotel in Bloomsbury. Wiggleswick was telling me about +one the other day. A friend of his burgled it and got six years. A man +called Barkus." + +"But what was the name of the hotel?" + +"Ah! that I forget," said Septimus. "It had something to do with Sir Walter +Scott. Let me see. Lockhart--no, Lockhart's is a different place. It was +either the Bride of Lammermoor or--yes," he cried triumphantly, "it was the +Ravenswood, in Southampton Row." + +Emmy rose. The switch off onto the trivial piece of paper had braced her +unstrung nerves for a final effort: that, and the terror of meeting Zora. + +"You'll take me there. I'll just put some things together." + +He opened the door for her to pass out. On the threshold she turned. + +"I believe God sent you to Nunsmere Common last night." + +She left him, and he went back to the fire and filled and lit his pipe. Her +words touched him. They also struck a chord of memory. His ever-wandering +mind went back to a scene in undergraduate days. It was the Corn Exchange +at Cambridge, where the most famous of all American evangelists was holding +one of a series of revivalist meetings. The great bare hall was packed with +youths, who came, some to scoff and others to pray. The coarse-figured, +bald-headed, brown-bearded man in black on the platform, with his homely +phrase and (to polite undergraduate ears) terrible Yankee twang, was +talking vehemently of the trivial instruments the Almighty used to effect +His purposes. Moses's rod, for instance. "You can imagine Pharaoh," said +he--and the echo of the great voice came to Septimus through the +years--"you can imagine Pharaoh walking down the street one day and seeing +Moses with a great big stick in his hand. 'Hallo, Moses,' says he, 'where +are you going?' 'Where am I going?' says Moses. 'I guess I'm going to +deliver the Children of Israel out of the House of Bondage and conduct them +to a land flowing with milk and honey.' 'And how are you going to do it, +Moses?' '_With this rod, sir, with this rod!_'" + +Septimus remembered how this bit of unauthenticated history was greeted +with derision by the general, and with a shocked sense of propriety by the +cultivated--and young men at the university can be very cultivated indeed +on occasion. But the truth the great preacher intended to convey had +lingered at the back of his own mind and now came out into the light. +Perhaps Emmy had spoken more truly than she thought. In his simple heart he +realized himself to be the least effectual of men, apparently as unhelpful +towards a great deliverance as the walking stick used by Moses. But if God +had sent him to Nunsmere Common and destined him to be the mean instrument +of Emmy's deliverance? He rubbed the warm pipe bowl against his cheek and +excogitated the matter in deep humility. Yes, perhaps God had sent him. His +religious belief was nebulous, but up to its degree of clarity it was +sincere. + +A few minutes later they were again in the cab jogging wearily across +London to Southampton Row; and the little empty drawing-room with all its +vanities looked somewhat ghostly, lit as it was by the day and by the +frivolously shaded electric light which they had forgotten to switch off. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +When Septimus had seen Emmy admitted to the Ravenswood Hotel, he stood on +the gloomy pavement outside wondering what he should do. Then it occurred +to him that he belonged to a club--a grave, decorous place where the gay +pop of a champagne cork had been known to produce a scandalized silence in +the luncheon-room, and where serious-minded members congregated to scowl at +one another's unworthiness from behind newspapers. A hansom conveyed him +thither. In the hall he struggled over two telegrams which had caused him +most complicated thought during his drive. The problem was to ease Zora's +mind and to obtain a change of raiment without disclosing the whereabouts +of either Emmy or himself. This he had found no easy matter, diplomacy +being the art of speaking the truth with intent to deceive, and so finely +separated from sheer lying as to cause grave distress to Septimus's candid +soul. At last, after much wasting of telegraph forms, he decided on the +following: + +To Zora: "Emmy safe in London. So am I. Don't worry. Devotedly, Septimus." + +To Wiggleswick: "Bring clothes and railway carriage diagrams secretly to +Club." + +Having dispatched these, he went into the coffee-room and ordered +breakfast. The waiters served him in horrified silence. A gaunt member, +breakfasting a few tables off, asked for the name of the debauchee, and +resolved to write to the Committee. Never in the club's history had a +member breakfasted in dress clothes--and in such disreputably disheveled +dress clothes! Such dissolute mohocks were a stumbling-block and an +offense, and the gaunt member, who had prided himself on going by clockwork +all his life, felt his machinery in some way dislocated by the spectacle. +But Septimus ate his food unconcernedly, and afterwards, mounting to the +library, threw himself into a chair before the fire and slept the sleep of +the depraved till Wiggleswick arrived with his clothes. Then, having +effected an outward semblance of decency, he went to the Ravenswood Hotel. +Wiggleswick he sent back to Nunsmere. + +Emmy entered the prim drawing-room where he had been waiting for her, the +picture of pretty flower-like misery, her delicate cheeks white, a hunted +look in her baby eyes. A great pang of pity went through the man, hurting +him physically. She gave him a limp hand, and sat down on a saddle-bag +sofa, while he stood hesitatingly before her, balancing himself first on +one leg and then on the other. + +"Have you had anything to eat?" + +Emmy nodded. + +"Have you slept?" + +"That's a thing I shall never do again," she said querulously. "How can you +ask?" + +"If you don't sleep, you'll get ill and die," said Septimus. + +"So much the better," she replied. + +"I wish I could help you. I do wish I could help you." + +"No one can help me. Least of all you. What could a man do in any case? +And, as for you, my poor Septimus, you want as much taking care of as I +do." + +The depreciatory tone did not sting him as it would have done another man, +for he knew his incapacity. He had also gone through the memory of Moses's +rod the night before. + +"I wonder whether Wiggleswick could be of any use?" he said, more +brightly. + +Emmy laughed dismally. Wiggleswick! To no other mind but Septimus's could +such a suggestion present itself. + +"Then what's to be done?" + +"I don't know," said Emmy. + +They looked at each other blankly, two children face to face with one of +the most terrible of modern social problems, aghast at their powerlessness +to grapple with it. It is a situation which wrings the souls of the strong +with an agony worse than death. It crushes the weak, or drives them mad, +and often brings them, fragile wisps of human semblance, into the criminal +dock. Shame, disgrace, social pariahdom; unutterable pain to dear ones; an +ever-gaping wound in fierce family pride; a stain on two generations; an +incurable malady of a once blithe spirit; woe, disaster, and ruin--such is +the punishment awarded by men and women to her who disobeys the social law +and, perhaps with equal lack of volition, obeys the law physiological. The +latter is generally considered the greater crime. + +These things passed through Septimus's mind. His ignorance of the ways of +what is, after all, an indifferent, self-centered world exaggerated them. + +"You know what it means?" he said tonelessly. + +"If I didn't, should I be here?" + +He made one last effort to persuade her to take Zora into her confidence. +His nature abhorred deceit, to say nothing of the High Treason he was +committing; a rudiment of common sense also told him that Zora was Emmy's +natural helper and protector. But Emmy had the obstinacy of a weak nature. +She would die rather than Zora should know. Zora would never understand, +would never forgive her. The disgrace would kill her mother. + +"If you love Zora, as you say you do, you would want to save her pain," +said Emmy finally. + +So Septimus was convinced. But once more, what was to be done? + +"You had better go away, my poor Septimus," she said, bending forward +listlessly, her hands in her lap. "You see you're not a bit of use now. If +you had been a different sort of man--like anyone else--one who could have +helped me--I shouldn't have told you anything about it. I'll send for my +old dresser at the theater. I must have a woman, you see. So you had better +go away." + +Septimus walked up and down the room deep in thought. A spinster-looking +lady in a cheap blouse and skirt, an inmate of the caravanserai, put her +head through the door and, with a disapproving sniff at the occupants, +retired. At length Septimus broke the silence: + +"You said last night that you believed God sent me to you. I believe so +too. So I'm not going to leave you." + +"But what can you do?" asked Emmy, ending the sentence on a hysterical note +which brought tears and a fit of sobbing. She buried her head in her arms +on the sofa-end, and her young shoulders shook convulsively. She was an odd +mixture of bravado and baby helplessness. To leave her to fight her +terrible battle with the aid only of a theater dresser was an +impossibility. Septimus looked at her with mournful eyes, hating his +futility. Of what use was he to any God-created being? Another man, strong +and capable, any vital, deep-chested fellow that was passing along +Southampton Row at that moment, would have known how to take her cares on +his broad shoulders and ordain, with kind imperiousness, a course of +action. But he--he could only clutch his fingers nervously and shuffle with +his feet, which of itself must irritate a woman with nerves on edge. He +could do nothing. He could suggest nothing save that he should follow her +about like a sympathetic spaniel. It was maddening. He walked to the window +and looked out into the unexhilarating street, all that was man in him in +revolt against his ineffectuality. + +Suddenly came the flash of inspiration, swift, illuminating, such as +happened sometimes when the idea of a world-upsetting invention burst upon +him with bewildering clearness; but this time more radiant, more intense +than he had ever known before; it was almost an ecstasy. He passed both +hands feverishly through his hair till it could stand no higher. + +"I have it!" he cried; and Archimedes could not have uttered his famous +word with a greater thrill. + +"Emmy, I have it!" + +He stood before her gibbering with inspiration. At his cry she raised a +tear-stained face and regarded him amazedly. + +"You have what?" + +"The solution. It is so simple, so easy. Why shouldn't we have run away +together?" + +"We did," said Emmy. + +"But really--to get married." + +"Married?" + +She started bolt upright on the sofa, the feminine ever on the defensive. + +"Yes," said Septimus quickly. "Don't you see? If you will go through the +form of marriage with me--oh, just the form, you know--and we both +disappear abroad somewhere for a year--I in one place and you in another, +if you like--then we can come back to Zora, nominally married, and--and--" + +"And what?" asked Emmy, stonily. + +"And then you can say you can't live with me any longer. You couldn't stand +me. I don't think any woman could. Only Wiggleswick could put up with my +ways." + +Emmy passed her hands across her eyes. She was somewhat dazed. + +"You would give me your name--and shield me--just like that!" Her voice +quavered. + +"It isn't much to give. It's so short," he remarked absently. "I've always +thought it such a silly name." + +"You would tie yourself for life to a girl who has disgraced herself, just +for the sake of shielding her?" + +"Why, it's done every day," said Septimus. + +"Is it? Oh, God! You poor innocent!" and she broke down again. + +"There, there," said Septimus kindly, patting her shoulder. "It's all +settled, isn't it? We can get married by special license--quite soon. I've +read of it in books. Perhaps the Hall Porter can tell me where to get one. +Hall Porters know everything. Then we can write to Zora and tell her it was +a runaway match. It's the easiest thing in the world. I'll go and see after +it now." + +He left her prostrate on the sofa, her heart stone cold, her body lapped in +flame from feet to hair. It was not given to him to know her agony of +humiliation, her agony of temptation. He had but followed the message which +his simple faith took to be divine. The trivial name of Dix would be the +instrument wherewith the deliverance of Emmy from the House of Bondage +should be effected. He went out cheerily, stared for a moment at the Hall +Porter, vaguely associating him with the matter in hand, but forgetting +exactly why, and strode into the street, feeling greatly uplifted. The +broad-shouldered men who jostled him as he pursued his absent-minded and +therefore devious course no longer appeared potential champions to be +greatly envied. He felt that he was one of them, and blessed them as they +jostled him, taking their rough manners as a sign of kinship. The life of +Holborn swallowed him. He felt glad who once hated the dismaying bustle. +His heart sang for joy. Something had been given him to do for the sake of +the woman he loved. What more can a man do than lay down his life for a +friend? Perhaps he can do a little more for a loved woman: marry somebody +else. + +Deep down in his heart he loved Zora. Deep down in his heart, too, dwelt +the idiot hope that the miracle of miracles might one day happen. He loved +the hope with a mother's passionate love for a deformed and imbecile child, +knowing it unfit to live among the other healthy hopes of his conceiving. +At any rate, he was free to bring her his daily tale of worship, to glean a +look of kindness from her clear eyes. This was his happiness. For her sake +he would sacrifice it. For Zora's sake he would marry Emmy. The heart of +Septimus was that of a Knight-Errant confident in the righteousness of his +quest. The certainty had come all at once in the flash of inspiration. +Besides, was he not carrying out Zora's wish? He remembered her words. It +would be the greatest pleasure he could give her--to become her brother, +her real brother. She would approve. And beyond all that, deep down also in +his heart he knew it was the only way, the wise, simple, Heaven-directed +way. + +The practical, broad-shouldered, common-sense children of this world would +have weighed many things one against the other. They would have taken into +account sentimentally, morally, pharisaically, or cynically, according to +their various attitudes towards life, the relations between Emmy and +Mordaunt Prince which had led to this tragic situation. But for Septimus +her sin scarcely existed. When a man is touched by an angel's feather he +takes an angel's view of mortal frailties. + +He danced his jostled way up Holborn till the City Temple loomed through +the brown air. It struck a chord of association. He halted on the edge of +the curb and regarded it across the road, with a forefinger held up before +his nose as if to assist memory. It was a church. People were apt to be +married in churches. Sometimes by special license. That was it! A special +license. He had come out to get one. But where were they to be obtained? In +a properly civilized country, doubtless they would be sold in shops, like +boots and hair-brushes, or even in post-offices, like dog licenses. But +Septimus, aware of the deficiencies of an incomplete social organization, +could do no better than look wistfully up and down the stream of traffic, +as it roared and flashed and lumbered past. A policeman stopped beside him. +He appeared so lost, he met the man's eyes with a gaze so questioning, that +the policeman paused. + +"Want to go anywhere, sir?" + +"Yes," said Septimus. "I want to go where I can get a special license to be +married." + +"Don't you know?" + +"No. You see," said Septimus confidentially, "marriage has been out of my +line. But perhaps you have been married, and might be able to tell me." + +"Look here, sir," said the policeman, eyeing him kindly, but officially. +"Take my advice, sir; don't think of getting married. You go home to your +friends." + +The policeman nodded knowingly and stalked away, leaving Septimus perplexed +by his utterance. Was he a Socrates of a constable with a Xantippe at home, +or did he regard him as a mild lunatic at large? Either solution was +discouraging. He turned and walked back down Holborn somewhat dejected. +Somewhere in London the air was thick with special licenses, but who would +direct his steps to the desired spot? On passing Gray's Inn one of his +brilliant ideas occurred to him. The Inn suggested law; the law, +solicitors, who knew even more about licenses than Hall Porters and +Policemen. A man he once knew had left him one day after lunch to consult +his solicitors in Gray's Inn. He entered the low, gloomy gateway and +accosted the porter. + +"Are there any solicitors living in the Inn?" + +"Not so many as there was. They're mostly architects. But still there's +heaps." + +"Will you kindly direct me to one?" + +The man gave him two or three addresses, and he went comforted across the +square to the east wing, whose Georgian mass merged without skyline into +the fuliginous vapor which Londoners call the sky. The lights behind the +blindless windows illuminated interiors and showed men bending over desks +and drawing-boards, some near the windows with their faces sharply cut in +profile. Septimus wondered vaguely whether any one of those visible would +be his solicitor. + +A member of the first firm he sought happened to be disengaged, a +benevolent young man wearing gold spectacles, who received his request for +guidance with sympathetic interest and unfolded to him the divers methods +whereby British subjects could get married all over the world, including +the High Seas on board one of His Majesty's ships of the Mercantile Marine. +Solicitors are generally bursting with irrelevant information. When, +however, he elicited the fact that one of the parties had a flat in London +which would technically prove the fifteen days' residence, he opened his +eyes. + +"But, my dear sir, unless you are bent on a religious ceremony, why not get +married at once before the registrar of the Chelsea district? There are two +ways of getting married before the registrar--one by certificate and one by +license. By license you can get married after the expiration of one whole +day next after the day of the entry of the notice of marriage. That is to +say, if you give notice to-morrow you can get married not the next day, but +the day after. In this way you save the heavy special license fee. How does +it strike you?" + +It struck Septimus as a remarkable suggestion, and he admired the lawyer +exceedingly. + +"I suppose it's really a good and proper marriage?" he asked. + +The benevolent young man reassured him; it would take all the majesty of +the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division of the High Court of Justice to +dissolve it. Septimus agreed that in these circumstances it must be a +capital marriage. Then the solicitor offered to see the whole matter +through and get him married in the course of a day or two. After which he +dismissed him with a professional blessing which cheered Septimus all the +way to the Ravenswood Hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +"Good heavens, mother, they're married!" cried Zora, staring at a telegram +she had just received. + +Mrs. Oldrieve woke with a start from her after-luncheon nap. + +"Who, dear?" + +"Why, Emmy and Septimus Dix. Read it." + +Mrs. Oldrieve put on her glasses with faltering fingers, and read aloud the +words as if they had been in a foreign language: "Septimus and I were +married this morning at the Chelsea Registrar's. We start for Paris by the +2.30. Will let you know our plans. Love to mother from us both. Emmy." + +"What does this mean, dear?" + +"It means, my dear mother, that they're married," said Zora; "but why they +should have thought it necessary to run away to do it in this +hole-and-corner fashion I can't imagine." + +"It's very terrible," said Mrs. Oldrieve. + +"It's worse than terrible. It's idiotic," said Zora. + +She was mystified, and being a woman who hated mystification, was angry. +Her mother began to cry. It was a disgraceful thing; before a registrar, +too. + +"As soon as I let her go on the stage, I knew something dreadful would +happen to her," she wailed. "Of course Mr. Dix is foolish and eccentric, +but I never thought he could do anything so irregular." + +"I have no patience with him!" cried Zora. "I told him only a short while +ago that both of us would be delighted if he married Emmy." + +"They must come back, dear, and be married properly. Do make them," urged +Mrs. Oldrieve. "The Vicar will be so shocked and hurt--and what Cousin Jane +will say when she hears of it--" + +She raised her mittened hands and let them fall into her lap. The awfulness +of Cousin Jane's indignation transcended the poor lady's powers of +description. Zora dismissed the Vicar and Cousin Jane as persons of no +account. The silly pair were legally married, and she would see that there +was a proper notice put in _The Times_. As for bringing them back--she +looked at the clock. + +"They are on their way now to Folkestone." + +"It wouldn't be any good telegraphing them to come back and be properly +married in church?" + +"Not the slightest," said Zora; "but I'll do it if you like." + +So the telegram was dispatched to "Septimus Dix, Boulogne Boat, +Folkestone," and Mrs. Oldrieve took a brighter view of the situation. + +"We have done what we can, at any rate," she said by way of +self-consolation. + +Now it so happened that Emmy, like many another person at their wits' end, +had given herself an amazing amount of unnecessary trouble. Her flight had +not been noticed till the maid had entered her room at half-past eight. She +had obviously packed up some things in a handbag. Obviously again she had +caught the eight-fifteen train from Ripstead, as she had done once or twice +before when rehearsals or other theatrical business had required an early +arrival in London. Septimus's telegram had not only allayed no +apprehension, but it had aroused a mild curiosity. Septimus was master of +his own actions. His going up to London was no one's concern. If he were +starting for the Equator a telegram would have been a courtesy. But why +announce his arrival in London? Why couple it with Emmy's? And why in the +name of guns and musical comedies should Zora worry? But when she reflected +that Septimus did nothing according to the orthodox ways of men, she +attributed the superfluous message to his general infirmity of character, +smiled indulgently, and dismissed the matter from her mind. Mrs. Oldrieve +had nothing to dismiss, as she had been led to believe that Emmy had gone +up to London by the morning train. She only bewailed the flighty +inconsequence of modern young women, until she reflected that Emmy's father +had gone and come with disconcerting unexpectedness from the day of their +wedding to that of his death on the horns of a buffalo; whereupon she +fatalistically attributed her daughter's ways to heredity. So while the two +incapables were sedulously covering up their tracks, the most placid +indifference as to their whereabouts reigned in Nunsmere. + +The telegram, therefore, announcing their marriage found Zora entirely +unprepared for the news it contained. What a pitiful tragedy lay behind the +words she was a million miles from suspecting. She walked with her head +above such clouds, her eyes on the stars, taking little heed of the +happenings around her feet--and, if the truth is to be known, finding +mighty little instruction or entertainment in the firmament. The elopement, +for it was nothing more, brought her eyes, however, earthwards. "Why?" she +asked, not realizing it to be the most futile of questions when applied to +human actions. To every such "Why?" there are a myriad answers. When a +mysterious murder is committed, everyone seeks the motive. Unless +circumstance unquestionably provides the key of the enigma, who can tell? +It may be revenge for the foulest of wrongs. It may be that the assassin +objected to the wart on the other man's nose--and there are men to whom a +wart is a Pelion of rank offense, and who believe themselves +heaven-appointed to cut it off. It may be for worldly gain. It may be +merely for amusement. There is nothing so outrageous, so grotesque, which, +if the human brain has conceived it, the human hand has not done. Many a +man has taken a cab, on a sudden shower, merely to avoid the trouble of +unrolling his umbrella, and the sanest of women has been known to cheat a +'bus conductor of a penny, so as to wallow in the gratification of a +crossing-sweeper's blessing. When the philosopher asks the Everlasting Why, +he knows, if he be a sound philosopher--and a sound philosopher is he who +is not led into the grievous error of taking his philosophy seriously--that +the question is but the starting point of the entertaining game of +Speculation. + +To this effect spake the Literary Man from London, when next he met Zora. +Nunsmere was in a swarm of excitement and the alien bee had, perforce, to +buzz with the rest. + +"The interesting thing is," said he, "that the thing has happened. That +while the inhabitants of this smug village kept one dull eye on the +decalogue and another on their neighbors, Romance on its rosy pinions was +hovering over it. Two people have gone the right old way of man and maid. +They have defied the paralyzing conventions of the engagement. Oh! the +unutterable, humiliating, deadening period! When each young person has to +pass the inspection of the other's relations. When simpering friends +maddeningly leave them alone in drawing-rooms and conservatories so that +they can hold each other's hands. When they are on probation _coram +publico_. Our friends have defied all this. They have defied the orange +blossoms, the rice, the wedding presents, the unpleasant public affidavits, +the whole indecent paraphernalia of an orthodox wedding--the bridal veil--a +survival from the barbaric days when a woman was bought and paid for and a +man didn't know what he had got until he had married her and taken her +home--the senseless new clothes which brand them immodestly wherever they +go. Two people have had the courage to avoid all this, to treat marriage as +if it really concerned themselves and not Tom, Dick, and Harry. They've +done it. Why, doesn't matter. All honor to them." + +He waved his stick in the air--they had met on the common--and the lame +donkey, who had strayed companionably near them, took to his heels in +fright. + +"Even the donkey," said Zora, "Mr. Dix's most intimate friend, doesn't +agree with you." + +"The ass will agree with the sage only in the millennium," said Rattenden. + +But Zora was not satisfied with the professional philosopher's presentation +of the affair. She sought Wiggleswick, whom she found before a blazing fire +in the sitting-room, his feet on the mantelpiece, smoking a Havana cigar. +On her approach he wriggled to attention, and extinguishing the cigar by +means of saliva and a horny thumb and forefinger, put the stump into his +pocket. + +"Good morning, Wiggleswick," said Zora cheerfully. + +"Good morning, ma'am," said Wiggleswick. + +"You seem to be having a good time." + +Wiggleswick gave her to understand that, thanks to his master's angelic +disposition and his own worthiness, he always had a good time. + +"Now that he's married there will have to be a few changes in household +arrangements," said Zora. + +"What changes?" + +"There will be a cook and parlor maid and regular hours, and a mistress to +look after things." + +Wiggleswick put his cunning gray head on one side. + +"I'm sure they'll make me very comfortable, ma'am. If they do the work, I +won't raise no manner of objection." + +Zora, regarding the egoist with mingled admiration and vexedness, could +only say, "Oh!" + +"I never raised no objection to his marriage from the first," said +Wiggleswick. + +"Did he consult you about it?" + +"Of course he did," he replied with an indulgent smile, while the light of +sportive fancy gleamed behind his blear eyes. "He looks on me as a father, +he does, ma'am. 'Wiggleswick,' says he, 'I'm going to be married.' 'I'm +delighted to hear it, sir,' says I. 'A man needs a woman's 'and about him,' +says I." + +"When did he tell you this?" + +Wiggleswick searched his inventive memory. + +"About a fortnight ago. 'If I may be so bold, sir, who is the young lady?' +I asks. 'It's Miss Emily Oldrieve,' says he, and I said, 'A nicer, +brighter, prettier bit of goods'--I beg your pardon, ma'am--'young lady, +you couldn't pick up between here and Houndsditch.' I did say that, ma'am, +I tell you straight." He looked at her keenly to see whether this +expression of loyal admiration of his new mistress had taken effect, and +then continued. "And then he says to me, 'Wiggleswick, there ain't going to +be no grand wedding. You know me.'--And I does, ma'am. The outlandish +things he does, ma'am, would shock an alligator.--'I should forget the +day,' says he. 'I should lose the ring. I should marry the wrong party. I +should forget to kiss the bridesmaids. Lord knows what I shouldn't do. So +we're going up to London to be married on the Q.T., and don't you say +nothing to nobody." + +"So you've been in this conspiracy for a fortnight," said Zora severely, +"and you never thought it your duty to stop him doing so foolish a thing?" + +"As getting married, ma'am?" + +"No. Such a silly thing as running away." + +"Of course I did, ma'am," said Wiggleswick, who went on mendaciously to +explain that he had used every means in his power to prevail on his master +to submit to the orthodox ceremony for the sake of the family. + +"Then you might have given me a hint as to what was going on." + +Wiggleswick assumed a shocked expression. "And disobey my master? Orders is +orders, ma'am. I once wore the Queen's uniform." + +Zora, sitting on the arm of a chair, half steadying herself with her +umbrella, regarded the old man standing respectfully at attention before +her with a smile whose quizzicality she could not restrain. The old villain +drew himself up in a dignified way. + +"I don't mean the government uniform, ma'am. I've had my misfortunes like +anyone else. I was once in the army--in the band." + +"Mr. Dix told me that you had been in the band," said Zora with all her +graciousness, so as to atone for the smile. "You played that instrument in +the corner." + +"I did, ma'am," said Wiggleswick. + +Zora looked down at the point of her umbrella on the floor. Having no +reason to disbelieve Wiggleswick's circumstantial though entirely +fictitious story, and having by the smile put herself at a disadvantage, +she felt uncomfortably routed. + +"Your master never told you where he was going or how long he was likely to +be away?" she asked. + +"My master, ma'am," replied Wiggleswick, "never knows where he is going. +That's why he wants a wife who can tell him." + +Zora rose and looked around her. Then, with a sweep of her umbrella +indicating the general dustiness and untidiness of the room: + +"The best thing you can do," said she, "is to have the house thoroughly +cleaned and put in order. They may be back any day. I'll send in a +charwoman to help you." + +"Thank you, ma'am," said Wiggleswick, somewhat glumly. Although he had lied +volubly to her for his own ends, he stood in awe of her commanding +personality, and never dreamed of disregarding her high behests. But he had +a moral disapproval of work. He could see no nobility in it, having done so +much enforced labour in his time. + +"Do you think we need begin now, ma'am?" he asked anxiously. + +"At once," said Zora. "It will take you a month to clean the place. And it +will give you something to do." + +She went away femininely consoled by her exercise of authority--a minor +victory covering a retreat. But she still felt very angry with Septimus. + +When Clem Sypher came down to Penton Court for the week-end, he treated +the matter lightly. + +"He knew that he was acceptable to your mother and yourself, so he has done +nothing dishonorable. All he wanted was your sister and the absence of +fuss. I think it sporting of him. I do, truly." + +"And I think you're detestable!" cried Zora. "There's not a single man that +can understand." + +"What do you want me to understand?" + +"I don't know," said Zora, "but you ought to understand it." + +A day or two later, meeting Rattenden again, she found that he comprehended +her too fully. + +"What would have pleased you," said he, "would have been to play the _soeur +noble_, to have gathered the young couple in your embrace, and +magnanimously given them to each other, and smiled on the happiness of +which you had been the bounteous dispenser. They've cheated you. They've +cut your part clean out of the comedy, and you don't like it. If I'm not +right will you kindly order me out of the room? Well?" he asked, after a +pause, during which she hung her head. + +"Oh, you can stay," she said with a half-laugh. "You're the kind of man +that always bets on a certainty." + +Rattenden was right. She was jealous of Emmy for having unceremoniously +stolen her slave from her service--that Emmy had planned the whole +conspiracy she had not the slightest doubt--and she was angry with Septimus +for having been weak enough to lend himself to such duplicity. Even when he +wrote her a dutiful letter from Paris--to the telegram he had merely +replied, "Sorry; impossible"--full of everything save Emmy and their plans +for the future, she did not forgive him. How dared he consider himself fit +to travel by himself? His own servant qualified his doings as outlandish. + +"They'll make a terrible mess of their honeymoon," she said to Clem Sypher. +"They'll start for Rome and find themselves in St. Petersburg." + +"They'll be just as happy," said Sypher. "If I was on my honeymoon, do you +think I'd care where I went?" + +"Well, I wash my hands of them," said Zora with a sigh, as if bereft of +dear responsibilities. "No doubt they're happy in their own way." + +And that, for a long time, was the end of the matter. The house, cleaned +and polished, glittered like the instrument room of a man-of-war, and no +master or mistress came to bestow on Wiggleswick's toil the meed of their +approbation. The old man settled down again to well-earned repose, and the +house grew dusty and dingy again, and dustier and dingier as the weeks went +on. + +It has been before stated that things happen slowly in Nunsmere, even the +reawakening of Zora's nostalgia for the Great World and Life and the +Secrets of the Earth. But things do happen there eventually, and the time +came when Zora found herself once again too big for the little house. She +missed Emmy's periodical visits. She missed the regulation of Septimus. She +missed her little motor expeditions with Sypher, who had sold his car and +was about to sell "The Kurhaus, Kilburn Priory." The Cure seemed to have +transformed itself from his heart to his nerves. He talked of it--or so it +appeared to her--with more braggadocio than enthusiasm. He could converse +of little else. It was going to smash Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy to the +shreds of its ointment boxes. The deepening vertical line between the +man's brows she did not notice, nor did she interpret the wistful look in +his eyes when he claimed her help. She was tired of the Cure and the Remedy +and Sypher's fantastic need of her as ally. She wanted Life, real, +quivering human Life. It was certainly not to be found in Nunsmere, where +faded lives were laid away in lavender. For sheer sensations she began to +tolerate the cynical analysis of the Literary Man from London. She must go +forth on her journeyings again. She had already toyed with the idea when, +with Septimus's aid, she had mapped out voyages round the world. Now she +must follow it in strenuous earnest. The Callenders had cabled her an +invitation to come out at once to Los Angeles. She cabled back an +acceptance. + +"So you're going away from me?" said Sypher, when she announced her +departure. + +There was a hint of reproach in his voice which she resented. + +"You told me in Monte Carlo that I ought to have a mission in life. I can't +find it here, so I'm going to seek one in California. What happens in this +Sleepy Hollow of a place that a live woman can concern herself with?" + +"There's Sypher's Cure--" + +"My dear Mr. Sypher!" she laughed protestingly. + +"Oh," said he, "you are helping it on more than you imagine. I'm going +through a rough time, but with you behind me, as I told you before, I know +I shall win. If I turn my head round, when I'm sitting at my desk, I have a +kind of fleeting vision of you hovering over my chair. It puts heart and +soul into me, and gives me courage to make desperate ventures." + +"As I'm only there in the spirit, it doesn't matter whether the bodily I +is in Nunsmere or Los Angeles." + +"How can I tell?" said he, with one of his swift, clear glances. "I meet +you in the body every week and carry back your spirit with me. Zora +Middlemist," he added abruptly, after a pause, "I implore you not to leave +me." + +He leaned his arm on the mantelpiece from which Septimus had knocked the +little china dog, and looked down earnestly at her, as she sat on the +chintz-covered sofa behind the tea-table. At her back was the long casement +window, and the last gleams of the wintry sun caught her hair. To the man's +visionary fancy they formed an aureole. + +"Don't go, Zora." + +She was silent for a long, long time, as if held by the spell of the man's +pleading. Her face softened adorably and a tenderness came into the eyes +which he could not see. A mysterious power seemed to be lifting her towards +him. It was a new sensation, pleasurable, like floating down a stream with +the water murmuring in her ears. Then, suddenly, as if startled to vivid +consciousness out of a dream, she awakened, furiously indignant. + +"Why shouldn't I go? Tell me once and for all, why?" + +She expected what any woman alive might have expected save the chosen few +who have the great gift of reading the souls of the poet and the visionary; +and Clem Sypher, in his way, was both. She braced her nerves to hear the +expected. But the poet and the visionary spoke. + +It was the old story of the Cure, his divine mission to spread the healing +unguent over the suffering earth. Voices had come to him as they had come +to the girl at Domremy, and they had told him that through Zora Middlemist, +and no other, was his life's mission to be accomplished. + +To her it was anticlimax. Reaction forced a laugh against her will. She +leaned back among the sofa cushions. + +"Is that all?" she said, and Sypher did not catch the significance of the +words. "You seem to forget that the role of Mascotte is not a particularly +active one. It's all very well for you, but I have to sit at home and twirl +my thumbs. Have you ever tried that by way of soul-satisfying occupation? +Don't you think you're just a bit--egotistical?" + +He relaxed the tension of his attitude with a sigh, thrust his hands into +his pockets and sat down. + +"I suppose I am. When a man wants something with all the strength of his +being and thinks of nothing else day or night, he develops a colossal +selfishness. It's a form of madness, I suppose. There was a man called +Bernard Palissy who had it, and made everybody sacrifice themselves to his +idea. I've no right to ask you to sacrifice yourself to mine." + +"You have the right of friendship," said Zora, "to claim my interest in +your hopes and fears, and that I've given you and shall always give you. +But beyond that, as you say, you have no right." + +He rose, with a laugh. "I know. It's as logical as a proposition of Euclid. +But all the same I feel I have a higher right, beyond any logic. There are +all kinds of phenomena in life which have nothing whatsoever to do with +reason. You have convinced my reason that I'm an egotistical dreamer. But +nothing you can do or say will ever remove the craving for you that I have +here "--and he thumped his big chest--"like hunger." + +When he had gone Zora thought over the scene with more disturbance of mind +than she appreciated. She laughed to herself at Sypher's fantastic claim. +To give up the great things of the world, Life itself, for the sake of a +quack ointment! It was preposterous. Sypher was as crazy as Septimus; +perhaps crazier, for the latter did not thump his chest and inform her that +his guns or his patent convertible bed-razor-strop had need of her "here." +Decidedly, the results of her first excursion into the big world had not +turned out satisfactorily. Her delicate nose sniffed at them in disdain. +The sniff, however, was disappointingly unconvincing. The voices of +contemptible people could not sound in a woman's ears like the drowsy +murmuring of waters. The insane little devil that had visited her in Clem +Sypher's garden whispered her to stay. + +But had not Zora, in the magnificence of her strong womanhood, in the +hunger of her great soul, to find somewhere in the world a Mission in Life, +a fulness of existence which would accomplish her destiny? Down with the +insane little devil and all his potential works! Zora laughed and recovered +her serenity. Cousin Jane, who had had much to write concerning the +elopement, was summoned, and Zora, with infinite baggage in the care of +Turner, set sail for California. + +The New World lay before her with its chances of real, quivering, human +Life. Nunsmere, where nothing ever happened, lay behind her. She smiled +graciously at Sypher, who saw her off at Waterloo, and said nice things to +him about the Cure, but before her eyes danced a mirage in which Clem +Sypher and his Cure were not visible. The train steamed out of the station. +Sypher stood on the edge of the platform and watched the end buffers until +they were out of sight; then he turned and strode away, and his face was +that of a man stricken with great loneliness. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +It never occurred to Septimus that he had done a quixotic thing in marrying +Emmy, any more than to pat himself on the back for a monstrously clever +fellow when he had completed a new invention. At the door of the Registry +Office he took off his hat, held out his hand, and said good-by. + +"But where are you going?" Emmy asked in dismay. + +Septimus didn't know. He waved his hand vaguely over London, and said, +"Anywhere." + +Emmy began to cry. She had passed most of the morning in tears. She felt +doubly guilty now that she had accepted the sacrifice of his life; an awful +sense of loneliness also overwhelmed her. + +"I didn't know that you hated me like that," she said. + +"Good heavens!" he cried in horror. "I don't hate you. I only thought you +had no further use for me." + +"And I'm to be left alone in the street?" + +"I'll drive you anywhere you like," said he. + +"And then get rid of me as soon as possible? Oh! I know what you must be +feeling." + +Septimus put his hand under her arm, and led her away, in great distress. + +"I thought you wouldn't be able to bear the sight of me." + +"Oh, don't be silly!" said Emmy. + +Her adjuration was on a higher plane of sentiment than expression. It +comforted Septimus. + +"What would you like me to do?" + +"Anything except leave me to myself--at any rate for the present. Don't +you see, I've only you in the world to look to." + +"God bless my soul," said he, "I suppose that's so. It's very alarming. No +one has ever looked to me in all my life. I'd wander barefoot for you all +over the earth. But couldn't you find somebody else who's more used to +looking after people? It's for your own sake entirely," he hastened to +assure her. + +"I know," she said. "But you see it's impossible for me to go to any of my +friends, especially after what has happened." She held out her ungloved +left hand. "How could I explain?" + +"You must never explain," he agreed, sagely. "It would undo everything. I +suppose things are easy, after all, when you've set your mind on them--or +get some chap that knows everything to tell you how to do them--and there's +lots of fellows about that know everything--solicitors and so forth. +There's the man who told me about a Registrar. See how easy it was. Where +would you like to go?" + +"Anywhere out of England." She shuddered. "Take me to Paris first. We can +go on from there anywhere we like." + +"Certainly," said Septimus, and he hailed a hansom. + + * * * * * + +Thus it fell out that the strangely married pair kept together during the +long months that followed. Emmy's flat in London had been rented furnished. +The maid Edith had vanished, after the manner of many of her kind, into +ancillary space. The theater and all it signified to Emmy became a past +dream. Her inner world was tragical enough, poor child. Her outer world was +Septimus. In Paris, as she shrank from meeting possible acquaintances, he +found her a furnished _appartement_ in the Boulevard Raspail, while he +perched in a little hotel close by. The finding of the _appartement_ was an +illustration of his newly invented, optimistic theory of getting things +done. + +He came back to the hotel where he had provisionally lodged her and +informed her of his discovery. She naturally asked him how he had found it. + +"A soldier told me," he said. + +"A soldier?" + +"Yes. He had great baggy red trousers and a sash around his waist and a +short blue jacket braided with red and a fez with a tassel and a shaven +head. He saved me from being run over by a cab." + +Emmy shivered. "Oh, don't talk of it in that calm way--suppose you had been +killed!" + +"I suppose the Zouave would have buried me--he's such a helpful creature, +you know. He's been in Algiers. He says I ought to go there. His name is +Hegisippe Cruchot." + +"But what about the flat?" asked Emmy. + +"Oh, you see, I fell down in front of the cab and he dragged me away and +brushed me down with a waiter's napkin--there was a cafe within a yard or +two. And then I asked him to have a drink and gave him a cigarette. He +drank absinthe, without water, and then I began to explain to him an idea +for an invention which occurred to me to prevent people from being run over +by cabs, and he was quite interested. I'll show you--" + +"You won't," said Emmy, with a laugh. She had her lighter moments. "You'll +do no such thing--not until you've told me about the flat." + +"Oh! the flat," said Septimus in a disappointed tone, as if it were a +secondary matter altogether. "I gave him another absinthe and we became so +friendly that I told him that I wanted a flat and didn't in the least know +how to set about finding one. It turned out that there was an _appartement_ +vacant in the house of which his mother is concierge. He took me along to +see it, and introduced me to Madame, his mother. He has also got an aunt +who can cook." + +"I should like to have seen you talking to the Zouave," said Emmy. "It +would have made a pretty picture--the two of you hobnobbing over a little +marble table." + +"It was iron, painted yellow," said Septimus. "It wasn't a resplendent +cafe." + +"I wonder what he thought of you." + +"Well, he introduced me to his mother," replied Septimus gravely, whereat +Emmy broke into merry laughter, for the first time for many days. + +"I've taken the _appartement_ for a month and the aunt who can cook," he +remarked. + +"What!" cried Emmy, who had not paid very serious regard to the narrative. +"Without knowing anything at all about it?" + +She put on her hat and insisted on driving there incontinently, full of +misgivings. But she found a well-appointed house, a deep-bosomed, +broad-beamed concierge, who looked as if she might be the mother of twenty +helpful Zouaves, and an equally matronly and kindly-faced sister, a Madame +Bolivard, the aunt aforesaid who could cook. + +Thus, as the ravens fed Elijah, so did Zouaves and other casual fowl aid +Septimus on his way. Madame Bolivard in particular took them both under her +ample wing, to the girl's unspeakable comfort. A _brav' femme_, Madame +Bolivard, who not only could cook, but could darn stockings and mend +linen, which Emmy's frivolous fingers had never learned to accomplish. She +could also prescribe miraculous _tisanes_ for trivial ailments, could tell +the cards, and could converse volubly on any subject under heaven; the less +she knew about it, the more she had to say, which is a great gift. It +spared the girl many desolate and despairing hours. + +It was a lonely, monotonous life. Septimus she saw daily. Now and then, if +Septimus were known to be upstairs, Hegisippe Cruchot, coming to pay his +filial respects to his mother and his mother's _bouillabaisse_ (she was +from Marseilles) and her _matelote_ of eels, luxuries which his halfpenny a +day could not provide, would mount to inquire dutifully after his aunt and +incidentally after the _belle dame du troisieme_. He was their only visitor +from the outside world, and as he found a welcome and an ambrosial form of +alcohol compounded of Scotch whiskey and Maraschino (whose subtlety Emmy +had learned from an eminent London actor-manager at a far-away supper +party), he came as often as his respectful ideas of propriety allowed. + +They were quaint gatherings, these, in the stiffly furnished little salon: +Emmy, fluffy-haired, sea-shell-cheeked, and softly raimented, lying +indolently on the sofa amid a pile of cushions--she had sent Septimus out +to "La Samaritaine" to buy some (in French furnished rooms they stuff the +cushions with cement), and he had brought back a dozen in a cab, so that +the whole room heaved and swelled with them; Septimus, with his mild blue +eyes and upstanding hair, looking like the conventional picture of one who +sees a ghost; Hegisippe Cruchot, the outrageousness of whose piratical kit +contrasted with his suavity of manner, sitting with military precision on +a straight-backed chair; and Madame Bolivard standing in a far corner of +the room; her bare arms crossed above her blue apron, and watching the +scene with an air of kindly proprietorship. They spoke in French, for only +one word of English had Hegisippe and his aunt between them, and that being +"Howdodogoddam" was the exclusive possession of the former. Emmy gave +utterance now and then to peculiar vocables which she had learned at +school, and which Hegisippe declared to be the purest Parisian he had ever +heard an Englishwoman use, while Septimus spoke very fair French indeed. +Hegisippe would twirl his little brown mustache--he was all brown, skin and +eyes and close-cropped hair, and even the skull under the hair--and tell of +his military service and of the beautiful sunshine of Algiers and, when his +aunt was out of the room, of his Arcadian love affairs. She served in a +wine shop in the Rue des Francs-Bouchers. When was he going to get married? +At Emmy's question he laughed, with a wave of his cigarette, and a clank of +his bayonet against the leg of the chair. On a sou a day? Time enough for +that when he had made his fortune. His mother then would doubtless find him +a suitable wife with a dowry. When his military service was over he was +going to be a waiter. When he volunteered this bit of information Emmy gave +a cry of surprise. This dashing, swaggering desperado of a fellow a waiter! + +"I shall never understand this country!" she cried. + +"When one has good introductions and knows how to comport oneself, one +makes much"--and he rubbed his thumb and fingers together, according to the +national code of pantomime. + +And then his hosts would tell him about England and the fogs, wherein he +was greatly interested; or Septimus would discourse to him of inventions, +the weak spot in which his shrewd intelligence generally managed to strike, +and then Septimus would run his fingers through this hair and say, "God +bless my soul, I never thought of that," and Emmy would laugh; or else they +talked politics. Hegisippe, being a Radical, _fiche_'d himself absolutely +of the Pope and the priests. To be kind to one's neighbors and act as a +good citizen summed up his ethical code. He was as moral as any devout +Catholic. + +"What about the girl in the Rue des Francs-Bouchers?" asked Emmy. + +"If I were a good Catholic, I would have two, for then I could get +absolution," he cried gaily, and laughed immoderately at his jest. + +The days of his visits were marked red in Emmy's calendar. + +"I wish I were a funny beggar, and had lots of conversation like our friend +Cruchot, and could make you laugh," said Septimus one day, when the _taedium +vitae_ lay heavy on her. + +"If you had a sense of humor you wouldn't be here," she replied, with some +bitterness. + +Septimus rubbed his thin hands together thoughtfully. + +"I don't know why you should say that," said he. "I never heard a joke I +didn't see the point of. I'm rather good at it." + +"If you don't see the point of this joke, I can't explain it, my dear. It +has a point the size of a pyramid." + +He nodded and looked dreamily out of the window at the opposite houses. +Sometimes her sharp sayings hurt him. But he understood all, in his dim +way, and pardoned all. He never allowed her to see him wince. He stood so +long silent that Emmy looked up anxiously at his face, dreading the effect +of her words. His hand hung by his side--he was near the sofa where she +lay. She took it gently, in a revulsion of feeling, kissed it, and, as he +turned, flung it from her. + +"Go, my dear; go. I'm not fit to talk to you. Yes, go. You oughtn't to be +here; you ought to be in England in your comfortable home with Wiggleswick +and your books and inventions. You're too good for me, and I'm hateful. I +know it, and it drives me mad." + +He took her hand in his turn and held it for a second or two in both of his +and patted it kindly. + +"I'll go out and buy something," he said. + +When he returned she was penitent and glad to see him; and although he +brought her as a present a hat--a thing of purple feathers and green velvet +and roses, in which no self-respecting woman would be seen mummified a +thousand years hence--she neither laughed at it nor upbraided him, but +tried the horror on before the glass and smiled sweetly while the cold +shivers ran down her back. + +"I don't want you to say funny things, Septimus," she said, reverting to +the starting point of the scene, "so long as you bring me such presents as +this." + +"It's a nice hat," he admitted modestly. "The woman in the shop said that +very few people could wear it." + +"I'm so glad you think I'm an exceptional woman," she said. "It's the first +compliment you have ever paid me." + +She shed tears, though, over the feathers of the hat, before she went to +bed, good tears, such as bring great comfort and cleanse the heart. She +slept happier that night; and afterwards, whenever the devils entered her +soul and the pains of hell got hold upon her, she recalled the tears, and +they became the holy water of an exorcism. + +Septimus, unconscious of this landmark in their curious wedded life, passed +tranquil though muddled days in his room at the Hotel Godet. A gleam of +sunlight on the glazed hat of an omnibus driver, the stick of the whip and +the horse's ear, as he was coming home one day on the _imperiale_, put him +on the track of a new sighting apparatus for a field gun which he had half +invented some years before. The working out of this, and the +superintendence of the making of the model at some works near Vincennes, +occupied much of his time and thought. In matters appertaining to his +passion he had practical notions of procedure; he would be at a loss to +know where to buy a tooth-brush, and be dependent on the ministrations of a +postman or an old woman in a charcoal shop, but to the place where delicate +instruments could be made he went straight, as instinctively and surely as +a buffalo heads for water. Many of his books and papers had been sent him +from time to time by Wiggleswick, who began to dread the post, the labor of +searching and packing and dispatching becoming too severe a tax on the old +villain's leisure. These lay in promiscuous heaps about the floor of his +bedroom, stepping-stones amid a river of minor objects, such as collars and +bits of india rubber and the day before yesterday's _Petit Journal_. The +_femme de chambre_ and the dirty, indeterminate man in a green baize apron, +who went about raising casual dust with a great feather broom, at first +stowed the litter away daily, with jackdaw ingenuity of concealment, until +Septimus gave them five francs each to desist; whereupon they desisted with +alacrity, and the books became the stepping-stones aforesaid, +stepping-stones to higher things. His only concern was the impossibility of +repacking them when the time should come for him to leave the Hotel Godet, +and sometimes the more academic speculation as to what Zora would say +should some miracle of levitation transport her to the untidy chamber. He +could see her, radiant and commanding, dispelling chaos with the sweep of +her parasol. + +There were few moments in the day when he did not crave her presence. It +had been warmth and sunshine and color to him for so long that now the sun +seemed to have disappeared from the sky, leaving the earth a chill +monochrome. Life was very difficult without her. She had even withdrawn +from him the love "in a sort of way" to which she had confessed. The +goddess was angry at the slight cast on her by his secret marriage. And she +was in California, a myriad of miles away. She could not have been more +remote had she been in Saturn. When Emmy asked him whether he did not long +for Wiggleswick and the studious calm of Nunsmere, he said, "No." And he +spoke truly; for wherein lay the advantage of one spot on the earth's +surface over another, if Zora were not the light thereof? But he kept his +reason in his heart. They rarely spoke of Zora. + +Of the things that concerned Emmy herself so deeply, they never spoke at +all. Of her hopes and fears for the future he knew nothing. For all that +was said between them, Mordaunt Prince might have been the figure of a +dream that had vanished into the impenetrable mists of dreamland. To the +girl he was a ghastly memory which she strove to hide in the depths of her +soul. Septimus saw that she suffered, and went many quaint and irrelevant +ways to alleviate her misery. Sometimes they got on her nerves; more often +they made the good tears come. Once she was reading a tattered volume of +George Eliot which she had picked up during a stroll on the quays, and +calling him over to her side pointed out a sentence: "Dogs are the best +friends, they are always ready with their sympathy and they ask no +questions." + +"That's like you," she said; "but George Eliot had never met a man like +you, poor thing, so she had to stick the real thing down to dogs." + +Septimus reddened. "Dogs bark and keep one from sleeping," he said. "My +next-door neighbor at the Hotel Godet has two. An ugly man with a beard +comes and takes them out in a motor car. Do you know, I'm thinking of +growing a beard. I wonder how I should look in it?" + +Emmy laughed and caught his sleeve. "Why won't you even let me tell you +what I think of you?" + +"Wait till I've grown the beard, and then you can," said Septimus. + +"That will be never," she retorted; "for if you grow a beard, you'll look a +horror, like a Prehistoric Man--and I sha'n't have anything to do with you. +So I'll never be able to tell you." + +"It would be better so," said he. + +They made many plans for settling down in some part of rural France or +Switzerland--they had the map of Europe to choose from--but Septimus's +vagueness and a disinclination for further adventure on the part of Emmy +kept them in Paris. The winter brightened into spring, and Paris, gay in +lilac and sunshine, held them in her charm. There were days when they +almost forgot, and became the light-hearted companions of the lame donkey +on Nunsmere Common. + +A day on the Seine, for instance, in a steamboat, when the water was +miraculously turned to sparkling wine and the great masses of buildings +were bathed in amber and the domes of the Pantheon and the Invalides and +the cartouches and bosses of the Pont Alexandre III shone burnished gold. +There was Auteuil, with its little open-air restaurants, rustic trellis and +creepers, and its _friture_ of gudgeon and dusty salt and cutlery and great +yards of bread, which Emmy loved to break with Septimus, like Christmas +crackers. Then, afterwards, there was the winding Seine again, Robinson +Crusoe's Island in all its greenery, and St. Cloud with its terrace looking +over the valley to Paris wrapped in an amethyst haze, with here and there a +triumphant point of glory. + +A day also in the woods of Bas Meudon, alone beneath the trees, when they +talked like children, and laughed over the luncheon basket which Madame +Bolivard had stuffed full of electrifying edibles; when they lay on their +backs and looked dreamily at the sky through the leaves, and listened to +the chirrup of insects awakening from winter and the strange cracklings and +tiny voices of springtide, and gave themselves up to the general vibration +of life which accompanies the working of the sap in the trees. + +Days, too, in mid-Paris, in the Luxembourg Gardens, among the nursery maids +and working folk; at cafes on the remoter boulevards, where the kindly life +of Paris, still untouched by touristdom, passes up and down, and the spring +gets into the step of youth and sparkles in a girl's eyes. At the window +even of the _appartement_ in the Boulevard Raspail, when the air was +startlingly clear and scented and brought the message of spring from far +lands, from the golden shores of the Mediterranean, from the windy mountain +tops of Auvergne, from the broad, tender green fields of Central France, +from every heart and tree and flower, from Paris itself, quivering with +life. At such times they would not talk, both interpreting the message in +their own ways, yet both drawn together into a common mood in which they +vaguely felt that the earth was still a Land of Romance, that the mystery +of rebirth was repeating itself according to unchanging and perpetual law; +that inconsiderable, forlorn human atoms though they were, the law would +inevitably affect them too, and cause new hopes, new desires, and new +happiness to bud and flower in their hearts. + +During these spring days there began to dawn in the girl's soul a knowledge +of the deeper meaning of things. When she first met Septimus and +delightedly regarded him as a new toy, she was the fluffy, frivolous little +animal of excellent breeding and half education, so common in English +country residential towns, with the little refinements somewhat coarsened, +the little animalism somewhat developed, the little brain somewhat +sharpened, by her career on the musical-comedy stage. Now there were signs +of change. A glimmering notion of the duty of sacrifice entered her head. +She carried it out by appearing one day, when Septimus was taking her for a +drive, in the monstrous nightmare of a hat. It is not given to breathing +male to appreciate the effort it cost her. She said nothing; neither did +he. She sat for two hours in the victoria, enduring the tortures of the +uglified, watching him out of the tail of her eye and waiting for a sign of +recognition. At last she could endure it no longer. + +"I put this thing on to please you," she said. + +"What thing?" + +"The hat you gave me." + +"Oh! Is that it?" he murmured in his absent way. "I'm so glad you like it." + +He had never noticed it. He had scarcely recognized it. It had given him no +pleasure. She had made of herself a sight for gods and men to no earthly +purpose. All her sacrifice had been in vain. It was then that she really +experienced the disciplinary irony of existence. She never wore the hat +again; wherein she was blameless. + +The spring deepened into summer, and they stayed on in the Boulevard +Raspail until they gave up making plans. Paris baked in the sun, and +theaters perished, and riders disappeared from the Acacias, and Cook's +brakes replaced the flashing carriages in the grand Avenue des Champs +Elysees, and the great Anglo-Saxon language resounded from the Place de la +Bastille to the Bon Marche. The cab horses drooped as if drugged by the +vapor of the melting asphalt beneath their noses. Men and women sat by +doorways, in front of little shops, on the benches in wide thoroughfares. +The Latin Quarter blazed in silence and the gates of the great schools were +shut. The merchants of lemonade wheeled their tin vessels through the +streets and the bottles crowned with lemons looked pleasant to hot eyes. +For the dust lay thick upon the leaves of trees and the lips of men, and +the air was heavy with the over-fulfilment of spring's promise. + +Septimus was sitting with Hegisippe Cruchot outside the little cafe of the +iron tables painted yellow where first they had consorted. + +"_Mon ami_," said he, "you are one of the phenomena that make me believe in +the _bon Dieu_. If you hadn't dragged me from under the wheels of the cab, +I should have been killed, and if I had been killed you wouldn't have +introduced me to your aunt who can cook, and what I should have done +without your aunt heaven only knows. I owe you much." + +"_Bah, mon vieux_," said Hegisippe, "what are you talking about? You owe me +nothing." + +"I owe you three lives," said Septimus. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Hegisippe Cruchot laughed and twirled his little brows mustache. + +"If you think so much of it," said he, "you can acquit your debt in full by +offering me another absinthe to drink the health of the three." + +"Why, of course," said Septimus. + +Hegisippe, who was sitting next the door, twisted his head round and +shouted his order to those within. It was a very modest little cafe; in +fact it was not a cafe at all, but a _Marchand des vins_ with a zinc +counter inside, and a couple of iron tables outside on the pavement to +convey the air of a _terrasse_. Septimus, with his genius for the +inharmonious, drank tea; not as the elegant nowadays drink at Colombin's or +Rumpelmayer's, but a dirty, gray liquid served with rum, according to the +old French fashion, before _five-o'cloquer_ became a verb in the language. +When people ask for tea at a _Marchand des vins_, the teapot has to be +hunted up from goodness knows where; and as for the tea...! Septimus, +however, sipped the decoction of the dust of ages with his usual placidity. +He had poured himself out a second cup and was emptying into it the +remainder of the carafe of rum, so as to be ready for the toast as soon as +Hegisippe had prepared his absinthe, when a familiar voice behind him +caused him to start and drop the carafe itself into the teacup. + +"Well, I'm blessed!" said the voice. + +It was Clem Sypher, large, commanding, pink, and smiling. The sight of +Septimus hobnobbing with a Zouave outside a humble wine merchant's had +drawn from him the exclamation of surprise. Septimus jumped to his feet. + +"My dear fellow, how glad I am to see you. Won't you sit down and join us? +Have a drink." + +Sypher took off his gray Homburg hat for a moment, and wiped a damp +forehead. + +"Whew! How anybody can stay in Paris this weather unless they are obliged +to is a mystery." + +"Why do you stay?" asked Septimus. + +"I'm not staying. I'm passing through on my way to Switzerland to look +after the Cure there. But I thought I'd look you up. I was on my way to +you. I was in Nunsmere last week and took Wiggleswick by the throat and +choked your address out of him. The Hotel Godet. It's somewhere about here, +isn't it?" + +"Over there," said Septimus, with a wave of the hand. He brought a chair +from the other table. "Do sit down." + +Sypher obeyed. "How's the wife?" + +"The--what?" asked Septimus. + +"The wife--Mrs. Dix." + +"Oh, very well, thank you," he said hurriedly. "Let me introduce you to my +good friend Monsieur Hegisippe Cruchot of the Zouaves--Monsieur +Cruchot--Monsieur Clem Sypher." + +Hegisippe saluted and declared his enchantment according to the manners of +his country. Sypher raised his hat politely. + +"Of Sypher's Cure--Friend of Humanity. Don't forget that," he said +laughingly in French. + +"_Qu'est ce que c'est que ca?_" asked Hegisippe, turning to Septimus. +Septimus explained. + +"Ah-h!" cried Hegisippe, open-mouthed, the light of recognition in his +eyes. "_La Cure Sypher_!" He made it rhyme with "prayer." "But I know that +well. And it is Monsieur who fabricates _ce machin-la_?" + +"Yes; the Friend of Humanity. What have you used it for?" + +"For my heels when they had blisters after a long day's march." + +The effect of these words on Sypher was electrical. He brought both hands +down on the table, leaned back in his chair, and looked at Septimus. + +"Good heavens!" he cried, changing color, "it never occurred to me." + +"What?" + +"Why--blistered heels--marching. Don't you see? It will cure the sore feet +of the Armies of the World. It's a revelation! It will be in the knapsack +of every soldier who goes to manoeuvers or to war! It will be a jolly sight +more useful than a marshal's baton! It will bring soothing comfort to +millions of brave men! Why did I never think of it? I must go round to all +the War Offices of the civilized globe. It's colossal. It makes your brain +reel. Friend of Humanity? I shall be the Benefactor of the Human Race." + +"What will you have to drink?" asked Septimus. + +"Anything. _Donnez-moi un bock_," he said impatiently, obsessed by his new +idea. "Tell me, Monsieur Cruchot, you who have used the _Cure Sypher_. It +is well known in the French army is it not? You had it served out from the +regimental medical stores?" + +"Ah, no, Monsieur. It is my mother who rubbed it on my heels." + +Sypher's face expressed disappointment, but he cheered up again +immediately. + +"Never mind. It is the idea that you have given me. I am very grateful to +you, Monsieur Cruchot." + +Hegisippe laughed. "It is to my mother you should be grateful, Monsieur." + +"I should like to present her with a free order for the Cure for life--if I +knew where she lived." + +"That is easy," said Hegisippe, "seeing that she is concierge in the house +where the _belle dame_ of Monsieur has her _appartement_." + +"Her _appartement_?" Sypher turned sharply to Septimus. "What's that? I +thought you lived at the Hotel Godet." + +"Of course," said Septimus, feeling very uncomfortable. "I live in the +hotel, and Emmy lives in a flat. She couldn't very well stay in the Hotel +Godet, because it isn't a nice place for ladies. There's a dog in the +courtyard that howls. I tried to throw him some cold ham the other morning +about six o'clock to stop him; but it hit a sort of dustman, who ate it and +looked up for more. It was very good ham, and I was going to have it for +supper." + +"But, my dear man," said Sypher, laying his hand on his friend's shoulder, +and paying no heed to the dog, ham, and dustman story, "aren't you two +living together?" + +"Oh, dear, not" said Septimus, in alarm, and then, catching at the first +explanation--"you see, our hours are different." + +Sypher shook his head uncomprehendingly. The proprietor of the +establishment, in dingy shirt-sleeves, set down the beer before him. +Hegisippe, who had mixed his absinthe and was waiting politely until their +new friend should be served, raised his glass. + +"Just before you came, Monsieur," said he, "I was about to drink to the +health--" + +"Of _L'Armee-Francaise_," interrupted Septimus, reaching out his glass. + +"But no," laughed Hegisippe. "It was to Monsieur, Madame, et Bebe." + +"Bebe?" cried Sypher, and Septimus felt his clear, swift glance read his +soul. + +They clinked glasses. Hegisippe, defying the laws governing the absorption +of alcohols, tossed off his absinthe in swashbuckler fashion, and rose. + +"Now I leave you. You have many things to talk about. My respectful +compliments to Madame. Messieurs, au revoir." + +He shook hands, saluted and swaggered off, his chechia at the very back of +his head, leaving half his shaven crown uncovered in front. + +"A fine fellow, your friend, an intelligent fellow--" said Sypher, watching +him. + +"He's going to be a waiter," said Septimus. + +"Now that he has had his heels rubbed with the cure he may be more +ambitious. A valuable fellow, for having given me a stupendous idea--but a +bit indiscreet, eh? Never mind," he added, seeing the piteous look on +Septimus's face. "I'll have discretion for the two of us. I'll not breathe +a word of it to anybody." + +"Thank you," said Septimus. + +There was an awkward silence. Septimus traced a diagram on the table with +the spilled tea. Sypher lighted a cigar, which he smoked in the corner of +his mouth, American fashion. + +"Well, I'm damned!" he muttered below his breath. + +He looked hard at Septimus, intent on his tea drawing. Then he shifted his +cigar impatiently to the other side of his mouth. "No, I'm damned if I am. +I can't be." + +"You can't be what?" asked Septimus, catching his last words. + +"Damned." + +"Why should you be?" + +"Look here," said Sypher, "I've rushed in rather unceremoniously into your +private affairs. I'm sorry. But I couldn't help taking an interest in the +two of you, both for your own sake and that of Zora Middlemist." + +"I suppose you would do anything for her." + +"Yes." + +"So would I," said Septimus, in a low voice. "There are some women one +lives for and others one dies for." + +"She is one of the women for whom one would live." + +Septimus shook his head. "No, she's the other kind. It's much higher. I've +had a lot of time to think the last few months," he continued after a +pause. "I've had no one but Emmy and Hegisippe Cruchot to talk to--and I've +thought a great deal about women. They usedn't to come my way, and I didn't +know anything at all about them." + +"Do you now?" asked Sypher, with a smile. + +"Oh, a great deal," replied Septimus seriously. "It's astonishing what a +lot of difference there is between them and between the ways men approach +different types. One woman a man wants to take by the hand and lead, and +another--he's quite content if she makes a carpet of his body and walks over +it to save her feet from sharp stones. It's odd, isn't it?" + +"Not very," said Sypher, who took a more direct view of things than +Septimus. "It's merely because he has got a kindly feeling for one woman +and is desperately in love with the other." + +"Perhaps that's it," said Septimus. + +Sypher again looked at him sharply, as a man does who thinks he has caught +another man's soul secret. It was only under considerable stress of feeling +that such coherence of ideas could have been expressed by his irrelevant +friend. What he had learned the last few minutes had been a surprise, a +pain, and a puzzle to him. The runaway marriage held more elements than he +had imagined. He bent forward confidentially. + +"You would make a carpet of your body for Zora Middlemist?" + +"Why, of course," replied the other in perfect simplicity. + +"Then, my friend, you're desperately in love with her." + +There was kindness, help, sympathy in the big man's voice, and Septimus, +though the challenge caused him agonies of shyness, did not find it in his +heart to resent Sypher's logic. + +"I suppose every man whom she befriends must feel the same towards her. +Don't you?" + +"I? I'm different. I've got a great work to carry through. I couldn't lie +down for anybody to walk over me. My work would suffer--but in this mission +of mine Zora Middlemist is intimately involved. I said it when I first saw +her, and I said it just before she left for California. She is to stand by +my side and help me. How, God knows." He laughed, seeing the bewildered +face of Septimus, who had never heard of this transcendental connection of +Zora with the spread of Sypher's Cure. "You seem to think I'm crazy. I'm +not. I work everything on the most hard and fast common-sense lines. But +when a voice inside you tells you a thing day and night, you must believe +it." + +Said Septimus: "If you had not met her, you wouldn't have met Hegisippe +Cruchot, and so you wouldn't have got the idea of Army blisters." + +Sypher clapped him on the shoulder and extolled him as a miracle of +lucidity. He explained magniloquently. It was Zora's unseen influence +working magnetically from the other side of the world that had led his +footsteps towards the Hotel Godet on that particular afternoon. She had +triumphantly vindicated her assertion that geographical location of her +bodily presence could make no difference. + +"I asked her to stay in England, you know," he remarked more simply, seeing +that Septimus lagged behind him in his flight. + +"What for?" + +"Why, to help me. For what other reason?" + +Septimus took off his hat and laid it on the chair vacated by Hegisippe, +and ran his fingers reflectively up his hair. Sypher lit another cigar. +Their side of the little street was deep in shade, but on half the road and +on the other side of the way the fierce afternoon sunlight blazed. The +merchant of wine, who had been lounging in his dingy shirt-sleeves against +the door-post, removed the glasses and wiped the table clear of the spilled +tea. Sypher ordered two more bocks for the good of the house, while +Septimus, still lost in thought, brought his hair to its highest pitch of +Struwel Peterdom. Passers-by turned round to look at them, for well-dressed +Englishmen do not often sit outside a _Marchand des vins_, especially one +with such hair. But passers-by are polite in France and do not salute the +unfamiliar with ribaldry. + +"Well," said Sypher, at last. + +"We've been speaking intimately," said Septimus. He paused, then proceeded +with his usual diffidence. "I've never spoken intimately to a man before, +and I don't quite know how to do it--it must be just like asking a woman to +marry you--but don't you think you were selfish?" + +"Selfish? How?" + +"In asking Zora Middlemist to give up her trip to California, just for the +sake of the Cure." + +"It's worth the sacrifice," Sypher maintained. + +"To you, yes; but it mayn't be so to her." + +"But she believes in the thing as I do myself!" cried Sypher. + +"Why should she, any more than I, or Hegisippe Cruchot? If she did, she +would have stayed. It would have been her duty. You couldn't expect a woman +like Zora Middlemist to fail in her duty, could you?" + +Sypher rubbed his eyes, as if he saw things mistily. But they were quite +clear. It was really Septimus Dix who sat opposite, concentrating his +discursive mind on Sypher's Cure and implicitly denying Zora's faith. A +simple-minded man in many respects, he would not have scorned to learn +wisdom out of the mouths of babes and sucklings; but out of the mouth of +Septimus what wisdom could possibly proceed? He laughed his suggestion away +somewhat blusteringly and launched out again on his panegyric of the Cure. +But his faith felt a quiver all through its structure, just as a great +building does at the first faint shock of earthquake. + +"What made you say that about Zora Middlemist?" he asked when he had +finished. + +"I don't know," replied Septimus. "It seemed to be right to say it. I know +when I get things into my head there appears to be room for nothing else +in the world. One takes things for granted. When I was a child my father +took it for granted that I believed in predestination. I couldn't; but I +did not dare tell him so. So I went about with a load of somebody else's +faith on my shoulders. It became intolerable; and when my father found out +he beat me. He had a bit of rope tied up with twine at the end for the +purpose. I shouldn't like this to happen to Zora." + +This ended the discussion. The landlord at his door-post drew them into +talk about the heat, the emptiness of Paris and the happy lot of those who +could go into villeggiatura in the country. The arrival of a perspiring +cabman in a red waistcoat and glazed hat caused him to retire within and +administer to the newcomer's needs. + +"One of my reasons for looking you up," said Sypher, "was to make my +apologies." + +"Apologies?" + +"Yes. Haven't you thought about the book on guns and wondered at not +hearing from me?" + +"No," said Septimus. "When I've invented a thing the interest has gone. +I've just invented a new sighting apparatus. I'll show you the model if +you'll come to the hotel." + +Sypher looked at his watch and excused himself on the ground of business +engagements. Then he had to dine and start by the nine o'clock train. + +"Anyhow," said he, "I'm ashamed at not having done anything with the guns. +I did show the proofs to a naval expert, but he made all sorts of +criticisms which didn't help. Experts know everything that is known and +don't want to know anything that isn't. So I laid it aside." + +"It doesn't matter in the least," said Septimus eagerly, "and if you want +to break the contract you sent me, I can pay you back the two hundred +pounds." But Sypher assured him that he had never broken a contract in his +life, and they shook hands and went their respective ways, Septimus to the +_appartement_ in the Boulevard Raspail, and Sypher thoughtfully in the +direction of the Luxembourg. + +He was sorry, very sorry for Septimus Dix. His kindness of heart had not +allowed him to tell the brutal truth about the guns. The naval expert had +scoffed in the free manner of those who follow the sea and declared the +great guns a mad inventor's dream. The Admiralty was overwhelmed with such +things. The proofs were so much waste paper. Sypher had come prepared to +break the news as gently as he could; but after all their talk it was not +in his heart to do so. And the two hundred pounds--he regarded it as money +given to a child to play with. He would never claim it. He was sorry, very +sorry for Septimus. He looked back along the past year and saw the man's +dog-like devotion to Zora Middlemist. But why did he marry Emmy, loving the +sister as he did? Why live apart from her, having married her? And the +child? It was all a mystery in which he did not see clear. He pitied the +ineffectuality of Septimus with the kind yet half-contemptuous pity of the +strong man with a fine nature. But as for his denial of Zora's faith, he +laughed it away. Egotistical, yes. Zora had posed the same question as +Septimus and he had answered it. But her faith in the Cure itself, his +mission to spread it far and wide over the earth, and to save the nations +from vulgar competitors who thought of nothing but sordid gain--that, he +felt sure, remained unshaken. + +Yet as he walked along, in the alien though familiar city, he was smitten, +as with physical pain, by a craving for her presence, for the gleam of her +eyes, for the greatness of sympathy and comprehension that inhabited her +generous and beautiful frame. The need of her was imperious. He stopped at +a cafe on the Boulevard Saint-Michel, called for the wherewithal to write, +and like a poet in the fine frenzy of inspiration, poured out his soul to +her over the heels of the armies of the world. + +He had walked a great deal during the day. When he stepped out of the cab +that evening at the Gare de Lyon, he felt an unfamiliar stinging in his +heel. During the process of looking after his luggage and seeking his train +he limped about the platform. When he undressed for the night in his +sleeping compartment, he found that a ruck in his sock had caused a large +blister. He regarded it with superstitious eyes, and thought of the armies +of the world. _In hoc signo vinces!_ The message had come from heaven. + +He took a sample box of Sypher's Cure from his handbag, and, almost with +reverence, anointed his heel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Clem Sypher slept the sleep of the warrior preparing for battle. When he +awoke at Lyons he had all the sensations of a wounded Achilles. His heel +smarted and tingled and ached, and every time he turned over determined on +a continuation of slumber, his foot seemed to occupy the whole width of the +berth. He reanointed himself and settled down again. But wakefulness had +gripped him. He pulled up the blinds of the compartment and let the dawn +stream in, and, lying on his back, gave himself up to the plans of his new +campaign. The more he thought out the scheme the simpler it became. He had +made it his business to know personages of high influence in every capital +in Europe. Much of his success had already been gained that way. The +methods of introduction had concerned him but little. For social purposes +they could have been employed only by a pushing upstart; but in the +furtherance of a divine mission the apostle does not bind his inspired feet +with the shackles of ordinary convention. Sypher rushed in, therefore, +where the pachyderms of Park Lane would have feared to tread. Just as the +fanatical evangelist has no compunction in putting to an entire stranger +embarrassing questions as to his possession of the Peace of God, so had +Sypher no scruple in approaching any foreigner of distinguished mien in an +hotel lounge and converting him to the religion of Sypher's Cure. In most +cosmopolitan resorts his burly figure and pink face were well known. +Newspapers paragraphed his arrival and departure. People pointed him out +to one another in promenades. Distinguished personages to whom he had +casually introduced himself introduced him to other distinguished +personages. When he threw off the apostle and became the man, his simple +directness and charm of manner caused him to be accepted pleasurably for +his own sake. Had he chosen to take advantage of his opportunities he might +have consorted with very grand folks indeed; at a price, be it said, which +his pride refused to pay. But he had no social ambitions. The grand folks +therefore respected him and held out a cordial hand as he passed by. That +very train was carrying to Switzerland a Russian Grand Duke who had greeted +him with a large smile and a "_Ah! ce bon Sypher!_" on the platform of the +Gare de Lyon, and had presented him as the Friend of Humanity to the Grand +Duchess. + +To Sypher, lying on his back and dreaming of the days when through him the +forced marches of weary troops would become light-hearted strolls along the +road, the jealously guarded portals of the War Offices of the world +presented no terrors. He ticked off the countries in his mind until he came +to Turkey. Whom did he know in Turkey? He had once given a certain Musurus +Bey a light for his cigarette in the atrium of the Casino at Monte Carlo; +but that could scarcely be called an introduction. No matter; his star was +now in the ascendant. The Lord would surely provide a Turk for him in +Geneva. He shifted his position in the berth, and a twinge of pain passed +through his foot, hurting horribly. + +When he rose to dress, he found some difficulty in putting on his boot. On +leaving the train at Geneva he could scarcely walk. In his room at the +hotel he anointed his heel again with the Cure, and, glad to rest, sat by +the window looking at the blue lake and Mont Blanc white-capped in the +quivering distance, his leg supported on a chair. Then his traveler, who +had arranged to meet him by appointment, was shown into the room. They were +to lunch together. To ease his foot Sypher put on an evening slipper and +hobbled downstairs. + +The traveler told a depressing tale. Jebusa Jones had got in everywhere and +was underselling the Cure. A new German skin remedy had insidiously crept +on to the market. Wholesale houses wanted impossible discounts, and retail +chemists could not be inveigled into placing any but the most insignificant +orders. He gave dismaying details, terribly anxious all the while lest his +chief should attribute to his incompetence the growing unpopularity of the +Cure. But to his amazement Sypher listened smilingly to his story of +disaster, and ordered a bottle of champagne. + +"All that is nothing!" he cried. "A flea bite in the ocean. It will right +itself as the public realize how they are being taken in by these American +and German impostors. The Cure can't fail. And let me tell you, Dennymede, +my son, the Cure is going to flourish as it has never flourished before. +I've got a scheme that will take your breath away." + +The glow of inspiration in Sypher's blue eyes and the triumph written on +his resolute face brought the features of the worried traveler for the +first time into an expression of normal satisfaction with the world. + +"I will stagger you to your commercial depths, my boy," Sypher continued. +"Have a drink first before I tell you." + +He raised his champagne glass. "To Sypher's Cure!" They drank the toast +solemnly. + +And then Sypher unfolded to his awe-stricken subordinate the scheme for +deblistering the heels of the armies of the world. Dennymede, fired by his +enthusiasm, again lifted his brimming glass. + +"By God, sir, you are a conqueror, an Alexander, a Hannibal, a Napoleon! +There's a colossal fortune in it." + +"And it will give me enough money," said Sypher, "to advertise Jebusa Jones +and the others off the face of the earth." + +"You needn't worry about them, sir, when you've got the army contracts," +said the traveler. + +He could not follow the spirituality underlying his chief's remark. Sypher +laid down the peach he was peeling and looked pityingly at Dennymede as at +one of little faith, one born to the day of small things. + +"It will be all the more my duty to do so," said he, "when the instruments +are placed in my hands. What, after all, is the healing of a few blistered +feet, compared with the scourge of leprosy, eczema, itch, psoriasis, and +what not? And, as for the money itself, what is it?" + +He preached his sermon. The securing of the world's army contracts was only +a means towards the shimmering ideal. It would clear the path of obstacles +and leave the Cure free to pursue its universal way as _consolatrix +afflictorum_. + +The traveler finished his peach, and accepted another which his host +hospitably selected for him. + +"All the same, sir," said he, "this is the biggest thing you've struck. May +I ask how you came to strike it?" + +"Like all great schemes, it had humble beginnings," said Sypher, in +comfortable postprandial mood, unconsciously flattered by the admiration of +his subordinate. "Newton saw an apple drop to the ground: hence the theory +of gravitation. The glory of Tyre and Sidon arose from the purple droppings +of a little dog's mouth who had been eating shell fish. The great +Cunarders came out of the lid of Stephenson's family kettle. A soldier +happened to tell me that his mother had applied Sypher's Cure to his +blistered heels--and that was the origin of the scheme." + +He leaned back in his chair, stretched out his legs and put one foot over +the other. He immediately started back with a cry of pain. + +"I was forgetting my own infernal blister," said he. "About a square inch +of skin is off and all the flesh round, it is as red as a tomato." + +"You'll have to be careful," advised the traveler. "What are you using for +it?" + +"Using for it? Why, good heavens, man, the Cure! What else?" + +He regarded Dennymede as if he were insane,' and Dennymede in his confusion +blushed as red as the blistered heel. + +They spent the afternoon over the reports and figures which had so greatly +depressed the traveler. He left his chief with hopes throbbing in his +breast. He had been promised a high position in the new Army Contract +Department. As soon as he had gone Sypher rubbed in more of the Cure. + +He passed a restless night. In the morning he found the ankle considerably +swollen. He could scarcely put his foot to the ground. He got into bed +again and rang the bell for the valet de chambre. The valet entered. Sypher +explained. He had a bad foot and wanted to see a doctor. Did the valet know +of a good doctor? The valet not only knew of a good doctor, but an English +doctor resident in Geneva who was always summoned to attend English and +American visitors at the hotel; furthermore, he was in the hotel at that +very moment. + +"Ask him if he would kindly step up," said Sypher. + +He looked ruefully at his ankle, which was about the size of his calf, +wondering why the Cure had not effected its advertised magic. The +inflammation, however, clearly required medical advice. In the midst of his +ruefulness the doctor, a capable-looking man of five and thirty, entered +the room. He examined the heel and ankle with professional scrutiny. Then +he raised his head. + +"Have you been treating it in any way?" + +"Yes," said Sypher, "with the Cure." + +"What Cure?" + +"Why, Sypher's Cure." + +The doctor brought his hand down on the edge of the footboard of the bed, +with a gesture of impatience. + +"Why on earth do people treat themselves with quack remedies they know +nothing about?" + +"Quack remedies!" cried Sypher. + +"Of course. They're all pestilential, and if I had my way I'd have them +stacked in the market place and burned by the common hangman. But the most +pestilential of the lot is Sypher's Cure. You ought never to have used it." + +Sypher had the sensation of the hotel walls crashing down upon his head, +falling across his throat and weighing upon his chest. For a few instants +he suffered a nightmare paralysis. Then he gasped for breath. At last he +said very quietly: + +"Do you know who I am?" + +"I have not the pleasure," said the doctor. "They only gave me your room +number." + +"I am Clem Sypher, the proprietor of Sypher's Cure." + +The two men stared at one another, Sypher in a blue-striped pyjama jacket, +supporting himself by one elbow on the bed, the doctor at the foot. The +doctor spread out his hands. + +"It's the most horrible moment of my life. I am at your mercy. I only gave +you my honest opinion, the result of my experience. If I had known your +name--naturally--" + +"You had better go," said Sypher in a queer voice, digging the nails into +the palms of his hands. "Your fee--?" + +"There is no question of it. I am only grieved to the heart at having +wounded you. Good morning." + +The door closed behind him, and Sypher gave himself up to his furious +indignation. + + * * * * * + +This soothed the soul but further inflamed the ankle. He called up the +manager of the hotel and sent for the leading medical man in Geneva. When +he arrived he took care to acquaint him with his name and quality. Dr. +Bourdillot, professor of dermatology in the University of Geneva, made his +examination, and shook a tactful head. With all consideration for the many +admirable virtues of _la cure Sypher_, yet there were certain maladies of +the skin for which he personally would not prescribe it. For this, for +that--he rattled off half a dozen of learned diseases--it might very well +be efficacious. Its effect would probably be benign in a case of +elephantiasis. But in a case of abrasion of the cuticle, where there was a +large surface of raw flesh laid bare, perhaps a simpler treatment might be +more desirable. + +His tone was exquisite, and he chose his language so that not a word could +wound. Sypher listened to him with a sinking heart. + +"In your opinion then, doctor," said he, "it isn't a good thing for +blistered heels?" + +"You ask for my opinion," replied the professor of dermatology at the +University of Geneva. "I give it you. No." + +Sypher threw out a hand, desperately argumentative. + +"But I know of a case in which it has proved efficacious. A Zouave of my +acquaintance--" + +Dr. Bourdillot smiled. "A Zouave? Just as nothing is sacred to a sapper, so +is nothing hurtful to a Zouave. They have hides like hippopotamuses, those +fellows. You could dip them in vitriol and they wouldn't feel it." + +"So his heels recovered in spite of the Cure?" said Sypher, grimly. + +"Evidently," said Dr. Bourdillot. + + * * * * * + +Sypher sat in his room for a couple of days, his leg on a chair, and looked +at Mont Blanc, exquisite in its fairy splendor against the far, pale sky. +It brought him no consolation. On the contrary it reminded him of Hannibal +and other conquerors leading their footsore armies over the Alps. When he +allowed a despondent fancy to wander uncontrolled, he saw great multitudes +of men staggering shoeless along with feet and ankles inflamed to the color +of tomatoes. Then he pulled himself together and set his teeth. Dennymede +came to visit him and heard with dismay the verdict of science, which +crushed his hope of a high position in the new Army Contract Department. +But Sypher reassured him as to his material welfare by increasing his +commission on foreign sales; whereupon he began to take a practical view of +the situation. + +"We can't expect a patent medicine, sir, to do everything." + +"I quite agree with you," said Sypher. "It can't make two legs grow where +one grew before, but it ought to cure blisters on the heel. Apparently it +won't. So we are where we were before I met Monsieur Hegisippe Cruchot. The +only thing is that we mustn't now lead people to suppose that it's good for +blisters." + +"They must take their chance," said Dennymede. He was a sharp, black-haired +young man, with a worried brow and a bilious complexion. The soothing of +the human race with Sypher's Balm of Gilead mattered nothing to him. His +atrabiliar temperament rendered his attitude towards humanity rather +misanthropic than otherwise. "Indeed," he continued, "I don't see why you +shouldn't try for the army contracts without referring specifically to sore +feet." + +"_Caveat emptor_," said Sypher. + +"I beg your pardon?" said Dennymede, who had no Latinity. + +"It means, let the buyer beware; it's up to the buyer to see what stuff +he's buying." + +"Naturally. It's the first principle of business." + +Sypher turned his swift clear glance on him and banged the window-ledge +with his hand. + +"It's the first principle of damned knavery and thieving," he cried, "and +if I thought anyone ran my business on it, they'd go out of my employ at +once! It's at the root of all the corruption that exists in modern trade. +It salves the conscience of the psalm-singing grocer who puts ground beans +into his coffee. It's a damnable principle." + +He thumped the window-ledge again, very angry. The traveler hedged. + +"Of course it's immoral to tell lies and say a thing is what it isn't. But +on the other hand no one could run a patent medicine on the lines of +warning the public as to what it isn't good for. You say on the wrapper it +will cure gout and rheumatism. If a woman buys a bottle and gives it to her +child who has got scarlet fever, and the child dies from it, it's her +lookout and not yours. When a firm does issue a warning such as 'Won't Wash +Clothes,' it's a business proceeding for the firm's own protection." + +"Well, we'll issue a warning, 'Won't Cure Blisters,'" said Sypher. "I +advertise myself as the Friend of Humanity. I am, according to my lights. +If I let poor fellows on the march reduce their feet to this condition I +should be the scourge of mankind like"--he snapped his fingers trying to +recall the name--"like Atlas--no it wasn't Atlas, but no matter. Not a box +of the Cure has been sold without the guarantee stamp of my soul's +conviction on it." + +"The Jebusa Jones people aren't so conscientious," said Dennymede. "I +bought a pot of their stuff this morning. They've got a new wrapper. See." +He unfolded a piece of paper and pointed out the place to his chief. "They +have a special paragraph in large print: 'Gives instant relief to blistered +feet. Every mountaineer should carry it in his gripsack.'" + +"They're the enemies of God and man," said Sypher, "and sooner than copy +their methods I would close down the factory and never sell another box as +long as I lived." + +"It's a thousand pities, sir, anyhow," said Dennymede, trying to work back +diplomatically, "that the army contract scheme has to be thrown overboard." + +"Yes, it's a nuisance," said Sypher. + +When he had dismissed the traveler he laughed grimly. "A nuisance!" + +The word was a grotesque anticlimax. + +He sat for a long while with his hands blinding his eyes, trying to +realize what the abandonment of the scheme meant to him. He was a man who +faced his responsibilities squarely. For the first time in his life he had +tried the Cure seriously on himself--chance never having given him cause +before--and it had failed. He had heard the Cure which he regarded as a +divine unction termed a pestilential quackery; the words burned red-hot in +his brain. He had heard it depreciated, with charming tact and courtesy, by +a great authority on diseases of the skin. One short word, "no," had wiped +out of existence his Napoleonic scheme for the Armies of the World--for +putting them on a sound footing. He smiled bitterly as the incongruous jest +passed through his mind. + +He had been fighting for months, and losing ground; but this was the first +absolute check that his faith had received. He staggered under it, half +wonderingly, like a man who has been hit by an unseen hand and looks around +to see whence the blow came. Why should it come now? He looked back along +the years. Not a breath of disparagement had touched the Cure's fair +repute. His files in London were full of testimonials honorably acquired. +Some of these, from lowly folk, were touching in their simple gratitude. It +is true that his manager suggested that the authors had sent them in the +hope of gain and of seeing their photographs in the halfpenny papers. But +his manager, Shuttleworth, was a notorious and dismal cynic who believed in +nothing save the commercial value of the Cure. Letters had come with +coroneted flaps to the envelopes. The writers certainly hoped neither for +gain nor for odd notoriety. He had never paid a fee for a testimonial +throughout his career; every one that he printed was genuine and +unsolicited. He had been hailed as the Friend of Humanity by all sorts and +conditions of men. Why suddenly should he be branded as a dealer in +pestilence? + +His thought wandered back to the beginning of things. He saw himself in the +chemist's shop in Bury Saint Edmunds--a little shop in a little town, too +small, he felt, for the great unknown something within him that was craving +for expansion. The dull making up of prescriptions, the selling of tooth +powder and babies' feeding bottles--the deadly mechanical routine--he +remembered the daily revolt against it all. He remembered his discovery of +the old herbalists; his delight in their quaint language; the remedies so +extraordinary and yet so simple; his first idea of combining these with the +orthodox drugs of the British Pharmacopoeia; his experiments; his talks +with an aged man who kept a dingy little shop of herbs on the outskirts of +the town, also called a pestilential fellow by the medical faculty of the +district, but a learned ancient all the same, who knew the qualities of +every herb that grew, and with some reeking mess of pulp was said to have +cured an old woman's malignant ulcer given up as incurable by the faculty. +He remembered the night when the old man, grateful for the lad's interest +in his learning, gave him under vows of secrecy the recipe of this healing +emulsion, which was to become the basis of Sypher's Cure. In those days his +loneliness was cheered by a bulldog, an ugly, faithful beast whom he called +Barabbas--he sighed to think how many Barabbases had lived and died since +then--and who, contracting mange, became the _corpus vile_ of many +experiments--first with the old man's emulsion, then with the emulsion +mixed with other drugs, all bound together in pure animal fat, until at +last he found a mixture which to his joy made the sores heal and the skin +harden and the hair sprout and Barabbas grow sleek as a swell mobsman in +affluent circumstances. Then one day came His Grace of Suffolk into the +shop with a story of a pet of the Duchess's stricken with the same disease. +Sypher modestly narrated his own experience and gave the mighty man a box +of the new ointment. A fortnight afterwards he returned. Not only had it +cured the dog, but it must have charmed away the eczema on his ducal hands. +Full of a wild surmise he tried it next on his landlady's child, who had a +sore on its legs, and lo! the sore healed. It was then that the Divine +Revelation came to him; it was then that he passed his vigil, as he had +told Zora, and consecrated himself and his Cure to the service of humanity. + +The steps, the struggles, the purchase of the chemist's business, the early +exploitation of the Cure, its gradual renown in the district, the first +whisperings of its fame abroad, thanks to His Grace of Suffolk, the early +advertising, the gradual growth, the sale of the chemist's business, the +establishment of "Sypher's Cure" as a special business in the town, the +transference to London, the burst into world-wide fame--all the memories +came back to him, as he sat by the window of the Hotel de l'Europe and +blinded his face with his hands. + +He dashed them away, at last, with a passionate gesture. + +"It can't be! It can't be!" he cried aloud, as many another man has cried +in the righteous rebellion of his heart against the ironical decrees of the +high gods whom his simple nature has never suspected of their eternal and +inscrutable irony. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +If you travel on the highroad which skirts the cliff-bound coast of +Normandy you may come to a board bearing the legend "Hottetot-sur-Mer" and +a hand pointing down a narrow gorge. If you follow the direction and +descend for half a mile you come to a couple of villas, a humble cafe, some +fishermen's cottages, one of which is also a general shop and a _debit de +tabac_, a view of a triangle of sea, and eventually to a patch of shingly +beach between two great bastions of cliffs. The beach itself contains a +diminutive jetty, a tiny fleet of fishing smacks, some nets, three bathing +machines joined together by ropes on which hang a few towels and bathing +costumes, a dog, a child or so with spade and bucket, two English maiden +ladies writing picture post-cards, a Frenchman in black, reading a Rouen +newspaper under a gray umbrella, his wife and daughter, and a stall of +mussels presided over by an old woman with skin like seaweed. Just above +the beach, on one side of the road leading up the gorge, is a miniature +barn with a red cupola, which is the Casino, and, on the other, a long, +narrow, blue-washed building with the words written in great black letters +across the facade, "Hotel de la Plage." + +As soon as Emmy could travel, she implored Septimus to find her a quiet +spot by the sea whither the fashionable do not resort. Septimus naturally +consulted Hegisippe Cruchot. Hegisippe asked for time to consult his +comrades. He returned with news of an ideal spot. It was a village in the +Pyrenees about six thousand feet up in the air and forty miles from a +railway station. They could shoot bears all day long. When Emmy explained +that a village on the top of the Pyrenees was not by the seaside, and that +neither she nor his aunt, Madame Bolivard, took any interest in the +destruction of bears, he retired somewhat crestfallen and went with his +difficulties to Angelique, the young lady in the wine shop in the Rue des +Francs-Bouchers. Angelique informed him that a brave sailor on leave from +his torpedo boat was in the habit of visiting the wine shop every evening. +He ought to know something of the sea. A meeting was arranged by Angelique +between Hegisippe, Septimus and the brave sailor, much to Emmy's skeptical +amusement; and the brave sailor, after absorbing prodigious quantities of +alcohol and reviewing all the places on the earth's coastline from Yokohama +to Paris-Plage, declared that the veritable Eden by the Sea was none other +than his native village of Hottetot-sur-Mer. He made a plan of it on the +table, two square packets of tobacco representing the cliffs, a pipe stem +the road leading up the gorge, some tobacco dust the beach, and some coffee +slops applied with the finger the English Channel. + +Septimus came back to Emmy. "I have found the place. It is +Hottetot-sur-Mer. It has one hotel. You can catch shrimps, and its mussels +are famous all over the world." + +After consultation of a guide to Normandy, on which Emmy's prudence +insisted, they found the brave sailor's facts mainly correct, and decided +on Hottetot-sur-Mer. + +"I will take you there, see that you are comfortably settled, and then come +back to Paris," said Septimus. "You'll be quite happy with Madame Bolivard, +won't you?" + +"Of course," said Emmy, looking away from him. "What are you going to do in +Paris, all by yourself?" + +"Guns," he replied. Then he added reflectively: "I also don't see how I +can get out of the Hotel Godet. I've been there some time, and I don't know +how much to give the servants in tips. The only thing is to stay on." + +Emmy sighed, just a bit wistfully, and made no attempt to prove the +futility of his last argument. The wonderfully sweet of life had come to +her of late mingled with the unutterably bitter. She was in the state of +being when a woman accepts, without question. Septimus then went to the St. +Lazare station to make arrangements and discovered an official who knew a +surprising amount about railway traveling and the means of bringing a +family from domicile to station. He entered Septimus's requirements in a +book and assured him that at the appointed hour an omnibus would be waiting +outside the house in the Boulevard Raspail. Septimus thought him a person +of marvelous intellect and gave him five francs. + +So the quaint quartette started in comfort: Septimus and Emmy and Madame +Bolivard and the little lump of mortality which the Frenchwoman carried in +her great motherly arms. Madame Bolivard, who had not been out of Paris for +twenty years, needed all her maternal instincts to subdue her excitement at +the prospect of seeing the open country and the sea. In the railway +carriage she pointed out cattle to the unconscious infant with the +tremulous quiver of the traveler who espies a herd of hippogriffin. + +"Is it corn that, Monsieur? _Mon Dieu_, it is beautiful. Regard then the +corn, my cherished one." + +But the cherished one cared not for corn or cattle. He preferred to fix his +cold eyes on Septimus, as if wondering what he was doing in that galley. +Now and again Septimus would bend forward and, with a vague notion of the +way to convey one's polite intentions to babies, would prod him gingerly in +the cheek and utter an insane noise and then surreptitiously wipe his +finger on his trousers. When his mother took him she had little spasms of +tenderness during which she pressed him tightly to her bosom and looked +frightened. The child was precious to her. She had paid a higher price than +most women, and that perhaps enhanced its value. + +At Fecamp a rusty ramshackle diligence awaited them. Their luggage, +together with hen-coops, baskets, bundles, packing-cases, were piled on top +in an amorphous heap. They took their places inside together with an old +priest and a peasant woman in a great flapping cap. The old priest absorbed +snuff in great quantities and used a red handkerchief. The closed windows +of the vehicle rattled, it was very hot, and the antiquated cushions +smelled abominably. Emmy, tired of the railway journey and suffocated by +the heat, felt inclined to cry. This was her first step into her newly +conditioned world, and her heart sank. She regretted her comfortable rooms +in Paris and the conditions of existence there of which Septimus was an +integral part. She had got used to them, to his forced association with the +intimate details of her life, to his bending over the child like a +grotesque fairy godfather and making astonishing suggestions for its +upbringing. She had regarded him less as a stranger to be treated with +feminine reserve than the doctor. Now it was different. She was about to +take up her own life again, with new responsibilities, and the dearly loved +creature whom she had bullied and laughed at and leaned on would go away to +take up his own queer way of life, and the relations between them could not +possibly be the same again. The diligence was taking her on the last stage +of her journey towards the new conditions, and it jolted and bumped and +smelled and took an interminable time. + +"I'm sure," said she woefully, "there's no such place as Hottetot-sur-Mer, +and we are going on forever to find it." + +Presently Septimus pointed triumphantly through the window. + +"There it is!" + +"Where?" cried Emmy, for not a house was in sight. Then she saw the board. + +The old diligence turned and creaked and swung and pitched down the gorge. +When they descended at the Hotel de la Plage, the setting sun blazed on +their faces across the sea and shed its golden enchantment over the little +pebbly beach. At that hour the only living thing on it was the dog, and he +was asleep. It was a spot certainly to which the fashionable did not +resort. + +"It will be good for baby." + +"And for you." + +She shrugged her shoulders. "What is good for one is not always--" She +paused, feeling ungrateful. Then she added, "It's the best place you could +have brought us to." + +After dinner they sat on the beach and leaned against a fishing-boat. It +was full moon. The northern cliff cast its huge shadow out to sea and half +way across the beach. A knot of fisher folk sat full in the moonlight on +the jetty and sang a song with a mournful refrain. Behind them in the +square of yellow light of the salon window could be seen the figures of the +two English maiden ladies apparently still addressing picture post-cards. +The luminous picture stood out sharp against the dark mass of the hotel. +Beyond the shadow of the cliff the sea lay like a silver mirror in the +windless air. A tiny border of surf broke on the pebbles. Emmy drew a long +breath and asked Septimus if he smelled the seaweed. The dog came and +sniffed at their boots; then from the excellent leather judging them to be +persons above his social station, he turned humbly away. Septimus called +him, made friends with him--he was a smooth yellow dog of no account--and +eventually he curled himself up between them and went to sleep. Septimus +smoked his pipe. Emmy played with the ear of the dog and looked out to sea. +It was very peaceful. After a while she sighed. + +"I suppose this must be our last evening together." + +"I suppose it must," said Septimus. + +"Are you quite sure you can afford all the money you're leaving with me?" + +"Of course. It comes out of the bank." + +"I know that, you stupid," she laughed. "Where else could it come from +unless you kept it in a stocking? But the bank isn't an unlimited gold-mine +from which you can draw out as many handfuls as you want." + +Septimus knocked the ashes out of his pipe. + +"People don't get sovereigns out of gold-mines. I wish they did. They +extract a bit of gold about the size of this pebble out of a ton of quartz. +I once bought shares in a gold-mine and there wasn't any gold in it at all. +I always used to be buying things like that. People sold them to me. I was +like Moses." + +"Moses?" + +"Oh, not _that_ Moses. He could get anything out of anything. He got water +out of a rock. I mean the son of the Vicar of Wakefield, who bought the +green spectacles." + +"Oh," said Emmy, who after the way of her generation had never heard of +him. + +"I don't do it--let people sell me things--any more, now," he said gravely. +"I seem to have got wise. Perhaps it has come through having had to look +after you. I see things much clearer." + +He filled and lit another pipe and began to talk about Orion just visible +over the shoulder of the cliff. Emmy, whose interests were for the moment +terrestrial, interrupted him: + +"There's one thing I want you to see clearly, my dear, and that is that I +owe you a frightful lot of money. But I'm sure to get something to do when +I'm back in London and then I can repay you by instalments. Remember, I'm +not going to rest until I pay you back." + +"I sha'n't rest if you do," said Septimus, nervously. "Please don't talk of +it. It hurts me. I've done little enough in the world, God knows. Give me +this chance of--the Buddhists call it 'acquiring merit.'" + +This was not a new argument between them. Emmy had a small income under her +father's will, and the prospect of earning a modest salary on the stage. +She reckoned that she would have sufficient to provide for herself and the +child. Hitherto Septimus had been her banker. Neither of them had any +notion of the value of money, and Septimus had a child's faith in the magic +of the drawn check. He would as soon have thought of measuring the portion +of whisky he poured out for a guest as of counting the money he advanced to +Emmy. + +She took up his last words, and speaking in a low tone, as a woman does +when her pride has gone from her, she said: + +"Haven't you acquired enough merit already, my dear? Don't you see the +impossibility of my going on accepting things from you? You seem to take it +for granted that you're to provide for me and the child for the rest of our +lives. I've been a bad, unprincipled fool of a girl, I know--yes, rotten +bad; there are thousands like me in London--" + +Septimus rose to his feet. + +"Oh, don't, Emmy, don't! I can't stand it." + +She rose too and put her hands on his shoulders. + +"You must let me speak to-night--our last night before we part. It isn't +generous of you not to listen." + +The yellow dog, disturbed in his slumbers, shook himself, and regarding +them with an air of humble sympathy turned and walked away discreetly into +the shadow. The fisher folk on the jetty still sang their mournful chorus. + +"Sit down again." + +Septimus yielded. "But why give yourself pain?" he asked gently. + +"To ease my heart. The knife does good. Yes, I know I've been worthless. +But I'm not as bad as that. Don't you see how horrible the idea is to me? I +must pay you back the money--and of course not come on you for any more. +You've done too much for me already. It sometimes stuns me to think of it. +It was only because I was in hell and mad--and grasped at the hand you held +out to me. I suppose I've done you the biggest wrong a woman can do a man. +Now I've come to my senses, I shudder at what I've done." + +"Why? Why?" said Septimus, growing miserably unhappy. + +"How can you ever marry, unless we go through the vulgarity of a collusive +divorce?" + +"My dear girl," said he, "what woman would ever marry a preposterous +lunatic like me?" + +"There's not a woman living who ought not to have gone down on her bended +knees if she had married you." + +"I should never have married," said he, laying his hand for a moment +reassuringly on hers. + +"Who knows?" She gave a slight laugh. "Zora is only a woman like the rest +of us." + +"Why talk of Zora?" he said quickly. "What has she to do with it?" + +"Everything. You don't suppose I don't know," she replied in a low voice. +"It was for her sake and not for mine." + +He was about to speak when she put out her hand and covered his mouth. + +"Let me talk for a little." + +She took up her parable again and spoke very gently, very sensibly. The +moonlight peacefulness was in her heart. It softened the tone of her voice +and reflected itself in unfamiliar speech. + +"I seem to have grown twenty years older," she said. + +She desired on that night to make her gratitude clear to him, to ask his +pardon for past offenses. She had been like a hunted animal; sometimes she +had licked his hand and sometimes she had scratched it. She had not been +quite responsible. Sometimes she had tried to send him away, for his own +sake. For herself, she had been terrified at the thought of losing him. + +"Another man might have done what you did, out of chivalry; but no other +man but you would not have despised the woman. I deserved it; but I knew +you didn't despise me. You have been just the same to me all through as +you were in the early days. It braced me up and helped me to keep some sort +of self-respect. That was the chief reason why I could not let you go. Now +all is over. I am quite sane and as happy as I ever shall be. After +to-night it stands to reason we must each lead our separate lives. You +can't do anything more for me, and God knows, poor dear, I can't do +anything for you. So I want to thank you." + +She put her arm around his shoulder and kissed his cheek. + +Septimus flushed. Her lips were soft and her breath was sweet. No woman +save his mother had ever kissed him. He turned and took her hands. + +"Let me accept that in full payment for everything. You want me to go away +happy, don't you?" + +"My dear," she said, with a little catch in her voice, "if there was +anything in the world I could do to make you happy, short of throwing baby +to a tiger, I would do it." + +Septimus took off his cap and brought his hair to its normal +perpendicularity. Emmy laughed. + +"Dear me! What are you going to say?" + +Septimus reflected for a moment. + +"If I dine off a bloater in a soup-plate in the drawing-room, or if my bed +isn't made at six o'clock in the evening, and my house is a cross between a +pigsty and an ironmonger's shop, nobody minds. It is only Septimus Dix's +extraordinary habits. But if the woman who is my wife in the eyes of the +world--" + +"Yes, yes, I see," she said hurriedly. "I hadn't looked at it in that +light." + +"The boy is going to Cambridge," he murmured. "Then I should like him to go +into Parliament. There are deuced clever fellows in Parliament. I met one +in Venice two or three years ago. He knew an awful lot of things. We spent +an evening together on the Grand Canal and he talked all the time most +interestingly on the drainage system of Barrow-in-Furness. I wonder how +fellows get to know about drains." + +Emmy said: "Would it make you happy?" + +From her tone he gathered that she referred to the subject of contention +between them and not to his thirst for sanitary information. + +"Of course it would." + +"But how shall I ever repay you?" + +"Perhaps once a year," he said. "You can settle up in full, as you did just +now." + +There was a long silence and then Emmy remarked that it was a heavenly +night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +In the course of time Sypher returned to London to fight a losing battle +against the Powers of Darkness and derive whatever inspiration he could +from Zora's letters. He also called dutifully at "The Nook" during his +week-end visits to Penton Court, where he found restfulness in the +atmosphere of lavender. Mrs. Oldrieve continued to regard him as a most +superior person. Cousin Jane, as became a gentlewoman of breeding, received +him with courtesy--but a courtesy marked by that shade of reserve which is +due from a lady of quality to the grandfatherless. If she had not striven +against the unregeneracy of mortal flesh she would have disapproved of him +offhand because she disapproved of Zora; but she was a conscientious woman, +and took great pride in overcoming prejudices. She also collected pewter, +the history of which Sypher, during his years of self-education, had once +studied, in the confused notion that it was culture. All knowledge is good; +from the theory of quaternions to the way to cut a ham-frill. It is sure to +come in useful, somehow. An authority on Central African dialects has been +known to find them invaluable in altercations with cabmen, and a converted +burglar has, before now, become an admirable house-agent. What Sypher, +therefore, had considered merely learned lumber in his head cemented his +friendship with Cousin Jane--or rather, to speak by the book, soldered it +with pewter. As for the Cure, however, she did not believe in it, and told +him so, roundly. She had been brought up to believe in doctors, the +Catechism, the House of Lords, the inequality of the sexes, and the +Oldrieve family, and in that faith she would live and die. Sypher bore her +no malice. She did not call the Cure pestilential quackery. He was +beginning not to despise the day of small things. + +"It may be very good in its way," she said, "just as Liberalism and +Darwinism and eating in restaurants may be good things. But they are not +for me." + +Cousin Jane's conversation provided him with much innocent entertainment. +Mrs. Oldrieve was content to talk about the weather, and what Zora and Emmy +used to like to eat when they were little girls: subjects interesting in +themselves but not conducive to discussion. Cousin Jane was nothing if not +argumentative. She held views, expounded them, and maintained them. Nothing +short of a declaration from Jehovah bursting in glory through the sky could +have convinced her of error. Even then she would have been annoyed. She +profoundly disapproved of Emmy's marriage to Septimus, whom she +characterized as a doddering idiot. Sypher defended his friend warmly. He +also defended Wiggleswick at whose ways and habits the good lady expressed +unrestrained indignation. She could not have spoken more disrespectfully of +Antichrist. + +"You mark my words," she said, "he'll murder them both in their sleep." + +Concerning Zora, too, she was emphatic. + +"I am not one of those who think every woman ought to get married; but if +she can't conduct herself decently without a husband, she ought to have +one." + +"But surely Mrs. Middlemist's conduct is irreproachable," said Sypher. + +"Irreproachable? Do you think trapesing about alone all over the +earth--mixing with all sorts of people she doesn't know from Adam, and +going goodness knows where and doing goodness knows what, and idling her +life away, never putting a darn in her stockings even--is irreproachable +conduct on the part of a young woman of Zora's birth and appearance? The +way she dresses must attract attention, wherever she goes. It's supposed to +be 'stylish' nowadays. In my time it was immodest. When a young woman was +forced to journey alone she made herself as inconspicuous as possible. Zora +ought to have a husband to look after her. Then she could do as she +liked--or as he liked, which would be much the best thing for her." + +"I happen to be in Mrs. Middlemist's confidence," said Sypher. "She has +told me many times that she would never marry again. Her marriage--" + +"Stuff and rubbish!" cried Cousin Jane. "You wait until the man comes along +who has made up his mind to marry her. It must be a big strong man who +won't stand any nonsense and will take her by the shoulders and shake her. +She'll marry him fast enough. We'll see what happens to her in California." + +"I hope she won't marry one of those dreadful creatures with lassos," said +Mrs. Oldrieve, whose hazy ideas of California were based on hazier memories +of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show which she had seen many years ago in +London. + +"I hope Mrs. Middlemist won't marry at all," said Sypher, in a tone of +alarm. + +"Why?" asked Cousin Jane. + +She shot the question at him with almost a snarl. Sypher paused for a +moment or two before replying. + +"I should lose a friend," said he. + +"Humph!" said Cousin Jane. + +If the late Rev. Laurence Sterne had known Cousin Jane, "Tristram Shandy" +would have been the richer by a chapter on "Humphs." He would have analyzed +this particular one with a minute delicacy beyond the powers of Clem Sypher +through whose head rang the echo of the irritating vocable for some time +afterwards. It meant something. It meant something uncomfortable. It was +directly leveled at himself and yet it seemed to sum up her previous +disparaging remarks about Zora. "What the dickens _did_ she mean by it?" he +asked himself. + +He came down to Nunsmere every week now, having given up his establishment +at Kilburn Priory and sold the house--"The Kurhaus," as he had named it in +his pride. A set of bachelor's chambers in St. James's sheltered him during +his working days in London. He had also sold his motor-car; for +retrenchment in personal expenses had become necessary, and the +purchase-money of house and car were needed for the war of advertising +which he was waging against his rivals. These were days black with anxiety +and haunting doubt, illuminated now and then by Zora, who wrote gracious +letters of encouragement. He carried them about with him like talismans. + +Sometimes he could not realize that the great business he had created could +be on the brink of failure. The routine went on as usual. At the works at +Bermondsey the same activity apparently prevailed as when the Cure had +reached the hey-day of its fortune some five years before. In the +sweet-smelling laboratory gleaming with white tiles and copper retorts, the +white-aproned workmen sorted and weighed and treated according to the +secret recipe the bundles of herbs that came in every day and were stacked +in pigeon-holes along the walls. In the boiling-sheds, not so +sweet-smelling, the great vats of fat bubbled and ran, giving out to the +cooling-troughs the refined white cream of which the precious ointment was +made. Beyond there was another laboratory vast and clean and busy, where +the healing ichor of the herbs was mixed with the drugs and the cream. Then +came the work-rooms where rows of girls filled the celluloid boxes, one +dabbing in the well-judged quantity, another cutting it off clean to the +level of the top with a swift stroke of the spatula, another fitting on the +lid, and so on, in endless but fascinating monotony until the last girl +placed on the trolley by her side, waiting to carry it to the packing-shed, +the finished packet of Sypher's Cure as it would be delivered to the world. +Then there were the packing-sheds full of deal cases for despatching the +Cure to the four quarters of the globe, some empty, some being filled, +others stacked in readiness for the carriers: a Babel of sounds, of +hammering clamps, of creaking barrows, of horses by the open doors rattling +their heavy harness and trampling the flagstones with their heavy hoofs; a +ceaseless rushing of brawny men in sackcloth aprons, of dusty men with +stumps of pencils and note-books and crumpled invoices, counting and +checking and reporting to other men in narrow glass offices against the +wall. Outside stood the great wagons laden with the white deal boxes bound +with iron hoops and bearing in vermilion letters the inscription of +Sypher's Cure. + +Every detail of this complicated hive was as familiar to him as his kitchen +was to his cook. He had planned it all, organized it all. Every action of +every human creature in the place from the skilled pharmaceutist +responsible for the preparation of the ointment to the grimy boy who did +odd jobs about the sheds had been pre-conceived by him, had had its +mainspring in his brain. Apart from idealistic aspirations concerned with +the Cure itself, the perfecting of this machinery of human activity had +been a matter of absorbing interest, its perfection a subject of honorable +pride. + +He walked through the works day after day, noting the familiar sights and +sounds, pausing here and there lovingly, as a man does in his garden to +touch some cherished plant or to fill himself with the beauty of some rare +flower. The place was inexpressibly dear to him. That those furnaces should +ever grow cold, that those vats should ever be empty, that those two magic +words should cease to blaze on the wooden boxes, should fade from the sight +of man, that those gates should ever be shut, seemed to transcend +imagination. The factory had taken its rank with eternal, unchanging +things, like the solar system and the Bank of England. Yet he knew only too +well that there had been change in the unchanging and in his soul dwelt a +sickening certainty that the eternal would be the transient. Gradually the +staff had been reduced, the output lessened. Already two of the long tables +once filled with girls stood forlornly empty. + +His comfortably appointed office in Moorgate Street told the same story. +Week after week the orders slackened and gradually the number of the clerks +had shrunk. Gloom settled permanently on the manager's brow. He almost +walked on tiptoe into Sypher's room and spoke to him in a hushed whisper, +until rebuked for dismalness. + +"If you look like that, Shuttleworth, I shall cry." + +On another occasion Shuttleworth said: + +"We are throwing money away on advertisements. The concern can't stand +it." + +Sypher turned, blue pencil in hand, from the wall where draft proofs of +advertisements were pinned for his correction and master's touch. This was +a part of the business that he loved. It appealed to the flamboyant in his +nature. It particularly pleased him to see omnibuses pass by bearing the +famous "Sypher's Cure," an enlargement of his own handwriting, in streaming +letters of blood. + +"We're going to double them," said he; and his air was that of the racing +Mississippi captains of old days who in response to the expostulation of +their engineers sent a little nigger boy to sit on the safety-valve. + +The dismal manager turned up his eyes to heaven with the air of the family +steward in Hogarth's "Mariage a la Mode." He had not his chief's Napoleonic +mind; but he had a wife and a large family. Clem Sypher also thought of +that--not only of Shuttleworth's wife and family, but also of the wives and +families of the many men in his employ. It kept him awake at nights. + +In the soothing air of Nunsmere, however, he slept, in long dead stretches, +as a tired man sleeps, in spite of trains which screeched past the bottom +of his lawn. Their furious unrest enhanced the peace of village things. He +began to love the little backwater of the earth whose stillness calmed the +fever of life. As soon as he stepped out on to the platform at Ripstead a +cool hand seemed to touch his forehead, and charm away the cares that made +his temples throb. At Nunsmere he gave himself up to the simplicities of +the place. He took to strolling, like Septimus, about the common and made +friends with the lame donkey. On Sunday mornings he went to church. He had +first found himself there out of curiosity, for, though not an irreligious +man, he was not given to pious practices; but afterwards he had gone on +account of the restfulness of the rural service. His mind essentially +reverend took it very seriously, just as it took seriously the works of a +great poet which he could not understand or any alien form of human +aspiration; even the parish notices and the publication of banns he +received with earnest attention. His intensity of interest as he listened +to the sermon sometimes flattered the mild vicar, and at other times--when +thinness of argument pricked his conscience--alarmed him considerably. But +Sypher would not have dared enter into theological disputation. He took the +sermon as he took the hymns, in which he joined lustily. Cousin Jane, whom +he invariably met with Mrs. Oldrieve after the service and escorted home, +had no such scruples. She tore the vicar's theology into fragments and +scattered them behind her as she walked, like a hare in a paper chase. + +Said the Literary Man from London, who had strolled with them on one of +these occasions: + +"The good lady's one of those women who speak as if they had a relation who +had married a high official in the Kingdom of Heaven and now and then gave +them confidential information." + +Sypher liked Rattenden because he could often put into a phrase his own +unformulated ideas. He also belonged to a world to which he himself was a +stranger, the world of books and plays and personalities and theories of +art. Sypher thought that its denizens lived on a lofty plane. + +"The atmosphere," said Rattenden, "is so rarified that the kettle refuses +to boil properly. That is why we always have cold tea at literary +gatherings. My dear fellow, it's a damned world. It talks all day and does +nothing all night. The ragged Italian in front of the fresco in his village +church or at the back of the gallery at the opera of his town knows more +essentials of painting and music than any of us. It's a hollow sham of a +world filled with empty words. I love it." + +"Then why abuse it?" laughed Sypher. + +"Because it's a wanton and the wanton angers you and fascinates you at the +same time. You never know how to take her. You are aware she hasn't got a +heart, but her lips are red. She is unreal. She holds views in defiance of +common sense. Which is the nobler thing to do--to dig potatoes or paint a +man digging potatoes? She swears to you that the digger is a clod of earth +and the painter a handful of heaven. She is talking rot. You know it. Yet +you believe her." + +Sypher was not convinced by the airy paradoxician. He had a childish idea +that painters and novelists and actors were superior beings. Rattenden +found this Arcadian and cultivated Sypher's society. They took long walks +together on Sunday afternoons. + +"After all," said Rattenden, "I can speak freely. I am a pariah among my +kind." + +Sypher asked why. + +"Because I don't play golf. In London it is impossible to be seriously +regarded as a literary man unless you play golf." + +He found Sypher a good listener. He loved to catch a theory of life, hold +it in his hand like a struggling bird while he discoursed about it, and let +it go free into the sunshine again. Sypher admired his nimbleness of mind. + +"You juggle with ideas as the fellows on the stage do with gilt balls." + +"It's a game I learned," said Rattenden. "It's very useful. It takes one's +mind off the dull question of earning bread and butter for a wife and five +children." + +"I wish you'd teach it to me," said Sypher. "I've many wives and many +children dependent on me for bread and butter!" + +Rattenden was quick to note the tone of depression. He laughed kindly. + +"Looking on is just as good. When you're worried in London why don't you +look me up? My wife and I will play the game for you. She's an amusing +body. Heaven knows how I should have got through without her. She also +swears by Sypher's Cure." + +So they became friends. Sypher, since the blistered heel episode, had lost +his fearless way of trumpeting the Cure far and wide, having a nervous +dread of seeing the _p_ and _q_ of the hateful words form themselves on the +lips of a companion. He became subdued, and spoke only of travel and men +and things, of anything but the Cure. He preferred to listen and, as +Rattenden preferred to talk, he found conversation a simple matter. +Rattenden was an amusing anecdotist and had amassed a prodigious amount of +raw material for his craft. To the collector, by some unknown law of +attraction, come the objects which he collects. Everywhere he goes he finds +them to his hand, as Septimus's friend found the Toby jugs. Wherever +Rattenden turned, a bit of gossip met his ear. Very few things, therefore, +happened in literary and theatrical London which did not come inevitably to +his knowledge. He could have wrecked many homes and pricked many +reputations. As a man of the world, however, he used his knowledge with +discretion, and as an artist in anecdote he selected fastidiously. He +seldom retailed a bit of gossip for its own sake; when he did so he had a +purpose. + +One evening they dined together at Sypher's club, a great semi-political +institution with many thousand members. He had secured, however, a quiet +table in a corner of the dining-room which was adorned with full-length +portraits of self-conscious statesmen. Sypher unfolded his napkin with an +air of satisfaction. + +"I've had good news to-day. Mrs. Middlemist is on her way home." + +"You have the privilege of her friendship," said Rattenden. "You're to be +envied. _O fortunate nimium_." + +He preserved some of the Oxford tradition in tone and manner. He had brown +hair turning gray, a drooping mustache and wore pince-nez secured by a +broad black cord. Being very short-sighted his eyes seen through the thick +lenses were almost expressionless. + +"Zora Middlemist," said he, squeezing lemon over his oysters, "is a grand +and splendid creature whom I admire vastly. As I never lose an opportunity +of telling her that she is doing nothing with her grand and splendid +qualities, I suffer under the ban of her displeasure." + +"What do you think she ought to do with them?" asked Sypher. + +"It's a difficult and delicate matter to discuss a woman with another man; +especially--" he waved a significant hand. "But I, in my little way, have +written a novel or two--studies of women. I speak therefore as an expert. +Now, just as a painter can't correctly draw the draped figure unless he has +an anatomical knowledge of the limbs beneath, so is a novelist unable to +present the character of a woman with sincerity and verisimilitude unless +he has taken into account all the hidden physiological workings of that +woman's nature. He must be familiar with the workings of the sex principle +within her, although he need not show them in his work, any more than the +painter shows the anatomy. Analyzing thus the imaginary woman, one forms a +habit of analyzing the real woman in whom one takes an interest--or rather +one does it unconsciously." He paused. "I told you it was rather delicate. +You see what I'm trying to get at? Zora Middlemist is driven round the +earth like Io by the gadfly of her temperament. She's seeking the Beauty or +Meaning or Fulfilment, or whatever she chooses to call it, of Life. What +she's really looking for is Love." + +"I don't believe it," said Sypher. + +Rattenden shrugged his shoulders. "It's true all the same. But in her case +it's the great love--the big thing for the big man--the gorgeous tropical +sunshine in which all the splendor of her can develop. No little man will +move her. She draws them all round her--that type has an irresistible +atmosphere--but she passes them by with her magnificent head in the air. +She is looking all the time for the big man. The pathetic comedy of it is +that she is as innocent and as unconscious of the object of her search as +the flower that opens its heart to the bee bearing the pollen on its wings. +I'm not infallible as a general rule. In this case I am." + +He hastened to consume his soup which had got cold during his harangue. + +"You've mixed much with women and studied them," said Sypher. "I haven't. I +was engaged to a girl once, but it was a tepid affair. She broke it off +because it was much more vital to me to work in my laboratory than to hold +her hand in her mother's parlor. No doubt she was right. This was in the +early days when I was experimenting with the Cure. Since then I've been a +man of one idea. It has absorbed all my soul and energies, so that I've had +none to spare for women. Here and there, of course--" + +"I know. The trifling things. They are part of the banquet of life. One +eats and forgets." + +Sypher glanced at him and nodded his appreciation of the Literary Man's +neat way of putting things. But he did not reply. He ate his fish in +silence, hardly tasting it, his mind far away following Zora Middlemist +across the seas. A horrible, jealous hatred of the big man for whom she +sought sprang up in his heart. His pink face flushed red. + +"This _sole bonne femme_ is excellent," said Rattenden. + +Sypher started in confusion, and praised the chef, and talked gastronomy +while his thoughts were with Zora. He remembered the confession of Septimus +Dix in Paris. Septimus had been caught in the irresistible atmosphere. He +loved her, but he was one of the little men and she had passed him by with +her magnificent head in the air. The gastronomic talk languished. Presently +Rattenden said: + +"One of the feminine phenomena that has puzzled me most of late has been +the marriage of her sister to Septimus Dix." + +Sypher laid down his knife and fork. + +"How extraordinary that you should mention it! He was in my mind as you +spoke." + +"I was thinking of the sister," said Rattenden. "She has Mrs. Middlemist's +temperament without her force of character--the sex without the splendor. +I heard a very curious thing about her only yesterday." + +"What was it?" + +"It was one of those things that are not told." + +"Tell me," said Sypher, earnestly. "I have reasons for asking. I am +convinced there are circumstances of which neither Mrs. Dix's mother nor +sister know anything. I'm a loyal man. You may trust me." + +"Very well," said Rattenden. "Have you ever heard of a man called Mordaunt +Prince? Yes--a well-known actor--about the biggest blackguard that +disgraces the stage. He was leading man at the theater where she last +played. They were doing 'The Widow of Ware.' They were about a great deal +together. It was common gossip at the time." + +"Gossip is notoriously uncharitable," said Sypher. + +"If charity covers a multitude of sins, uncharitableness has the advantage +of uncovering them. The _pudor britannicus_, however, is responsible for +uncovering the one I am going to tell you of. About two or three months +before the marriage, Emmy Oldrieve and Mordaunt Prince were staying +together at an hotel in Tunbridge Wells. There was no mistake about it. +There they were. They had a motor with them. A week before the Dix marriage +was announced Mordaunt Prince married a Mrs. Morris--old Sol Morris, the +money-lender's widow." + +Sypher stared at him. + +"It's one of the least amazing of human phenomena," said Rattenden, +cynically. "I'm only puzzled at Calypso being so soon able to console +herself for the departure of Ulysses, and taking up with such a +dreamy-headed shadow of a man as our friend Dix. The end of the Mordaunt +Prince story is that he soon grew too much for the widow, who has +pensioned him off, and now he is drinking himself to death in Naples." + +"Emmy Oldrieve! Good God, is it possible?" cried Sypher, absently pushing +aside the dish the waiter handed him. + +Rattenden carefully helped himself to partridge and orange salad. + +"It's not only possible, but unquestionable fact. You see," he added +complacently, "nothing can happen without its coming sooner or later to me. +My informant was staying at the hotel all the time. You will allow me to +vouch absolutely for her veracity." + +Sypher did not speak for some moments. The large dining-room with its +portraits of self-conscious statesmen faded away and became a little street +in Paris, one side in shade and the other baking in the sun; and at a +little iron table sat a brown and indiscreet Zouave and Septimus Dix, pale, +indecisive, with a wistful appeal in his washed-out blue eyes. Suddenly he +regained consciousness, and, more for the sake of covering his loss of +self-possession than for that of eating, he recalled the waiter and put +some partridge on his plate. Then he looked across the table at his guest +and said very sternly: + +"I look to you to prevent this story going any further." + +"I've already made it my duty to do so," said Rattenden. + +Sypher helped his guest to wine. + +"I hope you like this Roederer," said he. "It's the only exquisite wine in +the club, and unfortunately there are not more than a few bottles left. I +had seven dozen of the same _cuvee_ in my cellar at Priory Park--if +anything, in better condition. I had to sell it with the rest of the things +when I gave up the house. It went to my heart. Champagne is the only wine +I understand. There was a time when it stood as a symbol to me of the +unattainable. Now that I can drink it when I will, I know that all the laws +of philosophy forbid its having any attraction for me. Thank heaven I'm not +dyspeptic enough in soul to be a philosopher and I'm grateful for my +aspirations. I cultivated my taste for champagne out of sheer gratitude." + +"Any wise man," said Rattenden, "can realize his dreams. It takes something +much higher than wisdom to enjoy the realization." + +"What is that?" + +"The heart of a child," said Rattenden. He smiled in his inscrutable way +behind his thick lenses, and sipped his champagne. "Truly a delicious +wine," said he. + +Sypher said good-by to his guest on the steps of the club, and walked home +to his new chambers in St. James's deep in thought. For the first time +since his acquaintance with Rattenden, he was glad to part from him. He had +a great need of solitude. It came to him almost as a shock to realize that +things were happening in the world round about him quite as heroic, in the +eyes of the High Gods, as the battle between Sypher's Cure and Jebusa +Jones's Cuticle Remedy. The curtain of life had been lifted, and a flash of +its inner mysteries had been revealed. His eyes still were dazed. But he +had received the gift of vision. He had seen beyond doubt or question the +heart of Septimus Dix. He knew what he had done, why he had done it. + +Zora Middlemist had passed Septimus by with her magnificent head in the +air. But he was not one of the little men. + +"By God, he is not!" he cried aloud, and the cry came from his depths. + +Zora Middlemist had passed him, Clem Sypher, by with her magnificent head +in the air. + +He let himself into his chambers; they struck him as being chill and +lonely, the casual, uncared-for hiding-place of one of the little men. He +stirred the fire, almost afraid to disturb the cold silence by the rattle +of the poker against the bars of the grate. His slippers were set in +readiness on the hearth-rug, and the machine who valeted him had fitted +them with boot-trees. He put them on, and unlocking his desk, took out the +letter which he had received that morning from Zora. + +"For you," she wrote, "I want victory all along the line--the apotheosis of +Sypher's Cure on Earth. For myself, I don't know what I want. I wish you +would tell me." + +Clem Sypher sat in an arm-chair and looked into the fire until it went out. +For the first time in his life he did not know what he wanted. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +The days that followed were darkened by overwhelming anxieties, so that he +speculated little as to the Ultimately Desired. A chartered accountant sat +in the office at Moorgate Street and shed around him the gloom of +statistics. Unless a miracle happened the Cure was doomed. + +It is all very well to seat a little nigger on the safety-valve if the end +of the journey is in sight. The boiler may just last out the strain. But to +suppose that he will sit there in permanent security to himself and the +ship for an indefinite time is an optimism unwarranted by the general +experience of this low world. Sypher's Cure could not stand the strain of +the increased advertisement. Shuttleworth found a dismal pleasure in the +fulfilment of his prophecy. A reduction in price had not materially +affected the sales. The Jebusa Jones people had lowered the price of the +Cuticle Remedy and still undersold the Cure. During the year the Bermondsey +works had been heavily mortgaged. The money had all been wasted on a public +that had eyes and saw not, that had ears and heard not the simple gospel of +the Friend of Humanity--"Try Sypher's Cure." In the midst of the gloom +Shuttleworth took the opportunity of deprecating the unnecessary expense of +production, never having so greatly dared before. Only the best and purest +materials had been possible for the divine ointment. By using second +qualities, a great saving could be effected without impairing the efficacy +of the Cure. Thus Shuttleworth. Sypher blazed into holy anger, as if he +had been counseled to commit sacrilege. + +Radical reforms were imperative, if the Cure was to be saved. He spent his +nights over vast schemes only to find the fatal flaw in the cold light of +the morning. This angered him. It seemed that the sureness of his vision +had gone. Something strange, uncanny had happened within him, he knew not +what. It had nothing to do with his intellectual force, his personal +energy. It had nothing to do with his determination to win through and +restore the Cure to its former position in the market. It was something +subtle, spiritual. + +The memory of the blistered heel lived with him. The slight doubt cast by +Septimus on Zora's faith remained disturbingly at the back of his mind. Yet +he clung passionately to his belief. If it were not Heaven-sent, then was +he of men most miserable. + +Never had he welcomed the sight of Nunsmere more than the next Saturday +afternoon when the trap turned off the highroad and the common came into +view. The pearls and faint blues of the sky, the tender mist softening the +russet of the autumn trees, the gray tower of the little church, the red +roofs of the cottages dreaming in their old-world gardens, the quiet green +of the common with the children far off at play and the lame donkey +watching them in philosophic content--all came like the gift of a very calm +and restful God to the tired man's eyes. + +He thought to himself: "It only lacks one figure walking across the common +to meet me." Then the thought again: "If she were there would I see +anything else?" + +At Penton Court the maid met him at the door. + +"Mr. Dix is waiting to see you, sir." + +"Mr. Dix! Where is he?" + +"In the drawing-room. He has been waiting a couple of hours." + +He threw off his hat and coat, delighted, and rushed in to welcome the +unexpected guest. He found Septimus sitting in the twilight by the French +window that opened on the lawn, and making elaborate calculations in a +note-book. + +"My dear Dix!" He shook him warmly by the hand and clapped him on the +shoulder. "This is more than a pleasure. What have you been doing with +yourself?" + +Septimus said, holding up the note-book: + +"I was just trying to work out the problem whether a boy's expenses from +the time he begins feeding-bottles to the time he leaves the University +increases by arithmetical or geometrical progression." + +Sypher laughed. "It depends, doesn't it, on his taste for luxuries?" + +"This one is going to be extravagant, I'm afraid," said Septimus. "He cuts +his teeth on a fifteenth-century Italian ivory carving of St. John the +Baptist--I went into a shop to buy a purse and they gave it to me +instead--and turns up his nose at coral and bells. There isn't much of it +to turn up. I've never seen a child with so little nose. I invented a +machine for elongating it, but his mother won't let me use it." + +Sypher expressed his sympathy with Mrs. Dix, and inquired after her health. +Septimus reported favorably. She had passed a few weeks at +Hottetot-sur-Mer, which had done her good. She was now in Paris under the +mothering care of Madame Bolivard, where she would stay until she cared to +take up her residence in her flat in Chelsea, which was now free from +tenants. + +"And you?" asked Sypher. + +"I've just left the Hotel Godet and come back to Nunsmere. Perhaps I'll +give up the house and take Wiggleswick to London when Emmy returns. She +promised to look for a flat for me. I believe women are rather good at +finding flats." + +Sypher handed him a box of cigars. He lit one and held it awkwardly with +the tips of his long, nervous fingers. He passed the fingers of his other +hand, with the familiar gesture, up his hair. + +"I thought I'd come and see you," he said hesitatingly, "before going to +'The Nook.' There are explanations to be made. My wife and I are good +friends, but we can't live together. It's all my fault. I make the house +intolerable. I--I have an ungovernable temper, you know, and I'm harsh and +unloving and disagreeable. And it's bad for the child. We quarrel +dreadfully--at least, she doesn't." + +"What about?" Sypher asked gravely. + +"All sorts of things. You see, if I want breakfast an hour before +dinner-time, it upsets the household. Then there was the nose machine--and +other inventions for the baby, which perhaps might kill it. You can explain +all this and tell them that the marriage has been a dreadful mistake on +poor Emmy's side, and that we've decided to live apart. You will do this +for me, won't you?" + +"I can't say I'll do it with pleasure," said Sypher, "for I'm more than +sorry to hear your news. I suspected as much when I met you in Paris. But +I'll see Mrs. Oldrieve as soon as possible and explain." + +"Thank you," said Septimus; "you don't know what a service you would be +rendering me." + +He uttered a sigh of relief and relit his cigar which had gone out during +his appeal. Then there was a silence. Septimus looked dreamily out at the +row of trees that marked the famous lawn reaching down to the railway line. +The mist had thickened with the fall of the day and hung heavy on the +branches, and the sky was gray. Sypher watched him, greatly moved; tempted +to cry out that he knew all, that he was not taken in by the simple legend +of his ungovernable temper and unlovely disposition. His heart went out to +him, as to a man who dwelt alone on lofty heights, inaccessible to common +humanity. He was filled with pity and reverence for him. Perhaps he +exaggerated. But Sypher was an idealist. Had he not set Sypher's Cure as +the sun in his heaven and Zora as one of the fixed stars? + +It grew dark. Sypher rang for the lamp and tea. + +"Or would you like breakfast?" he asked laughingly. + +"I've just had supper," said Septimus. "Wiggleswick found some cheese in a +cupboard. I buried it in the front garden." A vague smile passed on his +face like a pale gleam of light over water on a cloudy day. "Wiggleswick is +deaf. He couldn't hear it." + +"He's a lazy scoundrel," said Sypher. "I wonder you don't sack him." + +Septimus licked a hanging strip of cigar-end into position--he could never +smoke a cigar properly--and lit it for the third time. + +"Wiggleswick is good for me," said he. "He keeps me human. I am apt to +become a machine. I live so much among them. I've been working hard on a +new gun--or rather an old gun. It's field artillery, quick-firing. I got on +to the idea again from a sighting apparatus I invented. I have the +specification in my pocket. The model is at home. I brought it from Paris." + +He fetched a parcel of manuscript from his pocket and unrolled it into +flatness. + +"I should like to show it to you. Do you mind?" + +"It would interest me enormously," said Sypher. + +"I invent all sorts of things. I can't help it. But I always come back to +guns--I don't know why. I hope you've done nothing further with the guns of +large caliber. I've been thinking about them seriously, and I find they're +all moonshine." + +He smiled with wan cheerfulness at the waste of the labor of years. Sypher, +on whose conscience the guns had laid their two hundred ton weight, felt +greatly relieved. Their colossal scale had originally caught his +imagination which loved big conceptions. Their working had seemed plausible +to his inexpert eye. He had gone with confidence to his friend, the expert +on naval gunnery, who had reported on them in breezy, sea-going terms of +disrespect. Since then he had shrunk from destroying his poor friend's +illusions. + +"Yes, they're all unmanageable. I see what's wrong with them--but I've lost +my interest in naval affairs." He paused and added dreamily: "I was +horribly seasick crossing the Channel this time. + +"Let us have a look at the field-gun," said Sypher encouragingly. +Remembering the naval man's language, he had little hope that Septimus +would be more successful by land than by sea; but his love and pity for the +inventor compelled interest. Septimus's face brightened. + +"This," said he, "is quite a different thing. You see I know more about +it." + +"That's where the bombardier comes in," laughed Sypher. + +"I shouldn't wonder," replied Septimus. + +He spread the diagram on a table, and expounded the gun. Absorbed in his +explanation he lost the drowsy incertitude of his speech and the dreaminess +of his eyes. He spoke with rapidity, sureness, and a note of enthusiasm +rang oddly in his voice. On the margins he sketched illustrations of the +Gatling, the Maxim, and the Hotchkiss and other guns, and demonstrated the +superior delicate deadliness of his own. It could fire more rounds per +minute than any other piece of artillery known to man. It could feed itself +automatically from a magazine. The new sighting apparatus made it as +accurate as a match rifle. Its power of massacre was unparalleled in the +history of wholesale slaughter. A child might work it. + +Septimus's explanation was too lucid for a man of Sypher's intelligence not +to grasp the essentials of his invention. To all his questions Septimus +returned satisfactory answers. He could find no flaw in the gun. Yet in his +heart he felt that the expert would put his finger on the weak spot and +consign the machine to the limbo of phantasmagoric artillery. + +"If it is all you say, there's a fortune in it," said he. + +"There's no shadow of doubt about it," replied Septimus. "I'll send +Wiggleswick over with the model to-morrow, and you can see for yourself." + +"What are you going to do with it?" + +"I don't know," said Septimus, in his usual manner. "I never know what to +do with things when I invent them. I once knew a man in the Patent Office +who patented things for me. But he's married now and gone to live in +Balham." + +"But he's still at the Patent Office?" + +"Perhaps he is," said Septimus. "It never occurred to me. But it has never +done me any good to have things patented. One has to get them taken up. +Some of them are drunk and disorderly enough for them to be taken up at +once," he added with his pale smile. He continued: "I thought perhaps you +would replace the big-caliber guns in our contract by this one." + +Sypher agreed with pleasure to the proposal. He knew a high military +official in the Ordnance Department of the War Office who would see that +the thing was properly considered. "If he's in town I'll go and see him at +once." + +"There's no hurry," said Septimus. "I shouldn't like you to put yourself +out. I know you're a very busy man. Go in any time you happen to be +passing. You are there pretty often: now, I suppose." + +"Why?" + +"My friend Hegisippe Cruchot gave you an idea in Paris--about soldiers' +feet. How is it developing?" + +Sypher made a wry face. "I found, my dear Dix, it was like your guns of +large caliber." He rose and walked impatiently about the room. "Don't let +us talk about the Cure, there's a dear fellow. I come down here to forget +it." + +"Forget it?" + +Septimus stared at him in amazement. + +"Yes. To clear my mind and brain of it. To get a couple of nights' sleep +after the rest of the week's nightmare. The concern is going to hell as +fast as it can, and"--he stopped in front of Septimus and brought down his +hands in a passionate gesture--"I can't believe it. I can't believe it! +What I'm going through God only knows." + +"I at least had no notion," said Septimus. "And I've been worrying you +with my silly twaddle about babies and guns." + +"It's a godsend for me to hear of anything save ruin and the breaking up of +all that was dear to me in life. It's not like failure in an ordinary +business. It has been infinitely more than a business to me. It has been a +religion. It is still. That's why my soul refuses to grasp facts and +figures." + +He went on, feeling a relief in pouring out his heart to one who could +understand. To no one had he thus spoken. With an expansive nature he had +the strong man's pride. To the world in general he turned the conquering +face of Clem Sypher, the Friend of Humanity, of Sypher's Cure. To Septimus +alone had he shown the man in his desperate revolt against defeat. The +lines around his mouth deepened into lines of pain, and pain lay behind his +clear eyes and in the knitting of his brows. + +"I believed the Almighty had put an instrument for the relief of human +suffering into my hands. I dreamed great dreams. I saw all the nations of +the earth blessing me. I know I was a damned fool. So are you. So is every +visionary. So are the apostles, the missionaries, the explorers--all who +dream great dreams--all damned fools, but a glorious company all the same. +I'm not ashamed to belong to it. But there comes a time when the apostle +finds himself preaching to the empty winds, and the explorer discovers his +El Dorado to be a barren island, and he either goes mad or breaks his +heart, and which of the two I'm going to do I don't know. Perhaps both." + +"Zora Middlemist will be back soon," said Septimus. "She is coming by the +White Star line, and she ought to be in Marseilles by the end of next +week." + +"She writes me that she may winter in Egypt. That is why she chose the +White Star line," said Sypher. + +"Have you told her what you've told me?" + +"No," said Sypher, "and I never shall while there's a hope left. She knows +it's a fight. But I tell her--as I have told my damned fool of a soul--that +I shall conquer. Would you like to go to her and say, 'I'm done--I'm +beaten'? Besides, I'm not." + +He turned and poked the fire, smashing a great lump of coal with a stroke +of his muscular arm as if it had been the skull of the Jebusa Jones dragon. +Septimus twirled his small mustache and his hand inevitably went to his +hair. He had the scared look he always wore at moments when he was coming +to a decision. + +"But you would like to see Zora, wouldn't you?" he asked. + +Sypher wheeled round, and the expression on his face was that of a prisoner +in the Bastille who had been asked whether he would like a summer banquet +beneath the trees of Fontainebleau. + +"You know that very well," said he. + +He laid down the poker and crossed the room to a chair. + +"I've often thought of what you said in Paris about her going away. You +were quite right. You have a genius for saying and doing the simple right +thing. We almost began our friendship by your saying it. Do you remember? +It was in Monte Carlo. You remember that you didn't like my looking on Mrs. +Middlemist as an advertisement. Oh, you needn't look uncomfortable, my dear +fellow. I loved you for it. In Paris you practically told me that I +oughtn't to regard her as a kind of fetich for the Cure, and claim her +bodily presence. You also put before me the fact that there was no more +reason for her to believe in the Cure than yourself or Hegisippe Cruchot. +If you could tell me anything more," said he earnestly, "I should value +it." + +What he expected to learn from Septimus he did not know. But once having +exalted him to inaccessible heights, the indomitable idealist was convinced +that from his lips would fall words of gentle Olympian wisdom. Septimus, +blushing at his temerity in having pointed out the way to the man whom he +regarded as the incarnation of force and energy, curled himself up +awkwardly in his chair, clasping his ankles between his locked fingers. At +last the oracle spoke. + +"If I were you," he said, "before going mad or breaking my heart, I should +wait until I saw Zora." + +"Very well. It will be a long time. Perhaps so much the better. I shall +remain sane and heart-whole all the longer." + + * * * * * + +After dinner Sypher went round to "The Nook," and executed his difficult +mission as best he could. To carry out Septimus's wishes, which involved +the vilification of the innocent and the beatification of the guilty, went +against his conscience. He omitted, therefore, reference to the demoniac +rages which turned the home into an inferno, and to the quarrels over the +machine for elongating the baby's nose. Their tempers were incompatible; +they found a common life impossible; so, according to the wise modern view +of things, they had decided to live apart while maintaining cordial +relations. + +Mrs. Oldrieve was greatly distressed. Tears rolled down her cheeks on to +her knitting. The old order was changing too rapidly for her and the new +to which it was giving place seemed anarchy to her bewildered eyes. She +held up tremulous hands in protest. Husband and wife living apart so +cheerfully, for such trivial reasons! Even if one had suffered great wrong +at the hands of the other it was their duty to remain side by side. "Those +whom God had joined together--" + +"He didn't," snapped Cousin Jane. "They were joined together by a scrubby +man in a registry office." + +This is the wild and unjust way in which women talk. For aught Cousin Jane +knew the Chelsea Registrar might have been an Antinous for beauty. + +Mrs. Oldrieve shook her head sadly. She had known how it would be. If only +they had been married in church by their good vicar, this calamity could +not have befallen them. + +"All the churches and all the vicars and all the archbishops couldn't have +made that man anything else than a doddering idiot! How Emmy could have +borne with him for a day passes my understanding. She has done well to get +rid of him. She has made a mess of it, of course. People who marry in that +way generally do. It serves her right." + +So spoke Cousin Jane, whom Sypher found, in a sense, an unexpected ally. +She made his task easier. Mrs. Oldrieve remained unconvinced. + +"And the baby just a month or so old. Poor little thing! What's to become +of it?" + +"Emmy will have to come here," said Cousin Jane firmly, "and I'll bring it +up. Emmy isn't fit to educate a rabbit. You had better write and order her +to come home at once." + +"I'll write to-morrow," sighed Mrs. Oldrieve. + +Sypher reflected on the impossibilities of the proposition and on the +reasons Emmy still had for remaining in exile in Paris. He also pitied the +child that was to be brought up by Cousin Jane. It had extravagant tastes. +He smiled. + +"My friend Dix is already thinking of sending him to the University; so you +see they have plans for his education." + +Cousin Jane sniffed. She would make plans for them! As for the +University--if it could turn out a doddering idiot like Septimus, it was +criminal to send any young man to such a seat of unlearning. She would not +allow him to have a voice in the matter. Emmy was to be summoned to +Nunsmere. + +Sypher was about to deprecate the idea when he reflected again, and thought +of Hotspur and the spirits from the vasty deep. Cousin Jane could call, and +so could Mrs. Oldrieve. But would Emmy come? As the answer to the question +was in the negative he left Cousin Jane to her comfortable resolutions. + +"You will no doubt discuss the matter with Dix," he said. + +Cousin Jane threw up her hands. "Oh, for goodness' sake, don't let him come +here! I couldn't bear the sight of him." + +Sypher looked inquiringly at Mrs. Oldrieve. + +"It has been a great shock to me," said the gentle lady. "It will take time +to get over it. Perhaps he had better wait a little." + +Sypher walked home in a wrathful mood. Ostracism was to be added to +Septimus's crown of martyrdom. + +Perhaps, on the other hand, the closing of "The Nook" doors was +advantageous. He had dreaded the result of Cousin Jane's +cross-examination, as lying was not one of his friend's conspicuous +accomplishments. Soothed by this reflection he smoked a pipe, and took down +Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" from his shelves. + +While he was deriving spiritual entertainment from the great battle between +Christian and Apollyon and consolation from the latter's discomfiture, +Septimus was walking down the road to the post-office, a letter in his +hand. The envelope was addressed to "Mrs. Middlemist, White Star Co.'s S.S. +_Cedric_, Marseilles." It contained a blank sheet of headed note-paper and +the tail of a little china dog. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +As soon as a woman knows what she wants she generally gets it. Some +philosophers assert that her methods are circuitous; others, on the other +hand, maintain that she rides in a bee line toward the desired object, +galloping ruthlessly over conventions, susceptibilities, hearts, and such +like obstacles. All, however, agree that she is unscrupulous, that the wish +of the woman is the politely insincere wish of the Deity, and that she +pursues her course with a serene sureness unknown to man. It is when a +woman does not know what she wants that she baffles the philosopher just as +the ant in her aimless discursiveness baffles the entomologist. Of course, +if the philosopher has guessed her unformulated desire, then things are +easy for him, and he can discourse with certitude on feminine vagaries, as +Rattenden did on the journeyings of Zora Middlemist. He has the word of the +enigma. But to the woman herself her state of mind is an exasperating +puzzle, and to her friends, philosophic or otherwise, her consequent +actions are disconcerting. + +Zora went to California, where she was hospitably entertained, and shown +the sights of several vast neighborhoods. She peeped into the Chinese +quarter at San Francisco, and visited the Yosemite Valley. Attentive young +men strewed her path with flowers and candy. Young women vowed her eternal +devotion. She came into touch with the intimate problems of the most +wonderful social organism the world has ever seen, and was confronted with +stupendous works of nature and illimitable solitudes wherein the soul +stands appalled. She also ate a great quantity of peaches. When her visit +to the Callenders had come to an end she armed herself with introductions +and started off by herself to see America. She traveled across the +Continent, beheld the majesty of Niagara and the bewildering life of New +York. She went to Washington and Boston. In fact, she learned many things +about a great country which were very good for her to know, receiving +impressions with the alertness of a sympathetic intellect, and pigeonholing +them with feminine conscientiousness for future reference. + +It was all very pleasant, healthful, and instructive, but it no more helped +her in her quest than gazing at the jewelers' windows in the Rue de la +Paix. Snow-capped Sierras and crowded tram-cars were equally unsuggestive +of a mission in life. In the rare moments which activity allowed her for +depression she began to wonder whether she was not chasing the phantom of a +wild goose. A damsel to whom in a moment of expansion she revealed the +object of her journeying exclaimed: "What other mission in life has a woman +than to spend money and look beautiful?" + +Zora laughed incredulously. + +"You've accomplished half already, for you do look beautiful," said the +damsel. "The other half is easy." + +"But if you haven't much money to spend?" + +"Spend somebody else's. Lord! If I had your beauty I'd just walk down Wall +Street and pick up a millionaire between my finger and thumb, and carry him +off right away." + +When Zora suggested that life perhaps might have some deeper significance, +the maiden answered: + +"Life is like the school child's idea of a parable--a heavenly story (if +you've lots of money) with no earthly meaning." + +"Don't you ever go down beneath the surface of things?" asked Zora. + +"If you dig down far enough into the earth," replied the damsel, "you come +to water. If you bore down deep enough into life you come to tears. My +dear, I'm going to dance on the surface and have a good time as long as I +can. And I guess you're doing the same." + +"I suppose I am," said Zora. And she felt ashamed of herself. + +At Washington fate gave her an opportunity of attaining the other half of +the damsel's idea. An elderly senator of enormous wealth proposed marriage, +and offered her half a dozen motor-cars, a few palaces and most of the two +hemispheres. She declined. + +"If I were young, would you marry me?" + +Zora's beautiful shoulders gave the tiniest shrug of uncertainty. Perhaps +her young friend was right, and the command of the earth was worth the +slight penalty of a husband. She was tired and disheartened at finding +herself no nearer to the heart of things than when she had left Nunsmere. +Her attitude toward the once unspeakable sex had imperceptibly changed. She +no longer blazed with indignation when a man made love to her. She even +found it more agreeable than looking at cataracts or lunching with +ambassadors. Sometimes she wondered why. The senator she treated very +tenderly. + +"I don't know. How can I tell?" she said a moment or two after the shrug. + +"My heart is young," said he. + +Zora met his eyes for the millionth part of a second and turned her head +away, deeply sorry for him. The woman's instinctive look dealt +instantaneous death to his hopes. It was one more enactment of the tragedy +of the bald head and the gray beard. He spoke with pathetic bitterness. +Like Don Ruy Gomez da Silva in "Hernani," he gave her to understand that +now, when a young fellow passed him in the street, he would give up all his +motor-cars and all his colossal canned-salmon business for the young +fellow's raven hair and bright eyes. + +"Then you would love me. I could make you." + +"What is love, after all?" asked Zora. + +The elderly senator looked wistfully through the years over an infinite +welter of salmon-tins, seeing nothing else. + +"It's the meaning of life," said he. "I've discovered it too late." + +He went away sorrowful, and Zora saw the vanity of great possessions. + +On the homeward steamer she had as a traveling companion a young Englishman +whom she had met at Los Angeles, one Anthony Dasent, an engineer of some +distinction. He was bronzed and healthy and lithe-limbed. She liked him +because he had brains and looked her squarely in the face. On the first +evening of the voyage a slight lurch of the vessel caused her to slip, and +she would have fallen had he not caught her by the arms. For the first time +she realized how strong a man could be. It was a new sensation, not +unpleasurable, and in thanking him she blushed. He remained with her on +deck, and talked of their California friends and the United States. The +next day he established himself by her side, and discoursed on the sea and +the sky, human aspirations, the discomforts of his cabin, and a belief in +eternal punishment. The day after that he told her of his ambitions, and +showed her photographs of his mother and sisters. After that they exchanged +views on the discipline of loneliness. His profession, he observed, took +him to the waste places of the earth, where there was never a woman to +cheer him, and when he came back to England he returned to a hearth equally +unconsoled. Zora began to pity his forlorn condition. To build strong +bridges and lay down railroads was a glorious thing for a man to do; to do +it without sweetheart or wife was nothing less than heroic. + +In the course of time he told her that she was the most beautiful woman he +had ever met. He expressed his admiration of the gold flecks in her brown +eyes and the gleams of gold in her hair when it was caught by the sun. He +also wished that his sisters could have their skirts cut like hers and +could learn the art of tying a veil over a hat. Then he took to scowling on +inoffensive young men who fetched her wraps and lent her their binoculars. +He declared one of them to be an unmitigated ass to throw whom overboard +would be to insult the Atlantic. And then Zora recognized that he was +stolidly in love with her after the manner of his stolid kind. She felt +frightened, and accused herself of coquetry. Her sympathy with his barren +existence had perhaps overstepped the boundaries of polite interest. She +had raised false hopes in a young and ingenuous bosom. She worked herself +up to a virtuous pitch of self-reprobation and flagellated herself soundly, +taking the precaution, however, of wadding the knots of the scourge with +cotton-wool. After all, was it her fault that a wholesome young Briton +should fall in love with her? She remembered Rattenden's uncomfortable +words on the eve of her first pilgrimage: "Beautiful women like yourself, +radiating feminine magnetism, worry a man exceedingly. You don't let him go +about in peace, so why should he let you?" + +So Zora came face to face with the eternal battle of the sexes. She stamped +her foot in the privacy of her cabin, and declared the principle to be +horrid and primeval and everything that was most revolting to a woman who +had earnestly set forth to discover the highest things of life. For the +remainder of the voyage she avoided Anthony Dasent's company as much as +possible, and, lest he should add jealousy to the gloom in which he +enveloped himself, sought unexciting joys in the society of a one-eyed +geologist who discoursed playfully on the foraminifera of the Pacific +slope. + +One day Dasent came on her alone, and burst out wrathfully: + +"Why are you treating me like this?" + +"Like what?" + +"You are making a fool of me. I'm not going to stand it." + +Then she realized that when the average man does not get what he wants +exactly when he wants it he loses his temper. She soothed him according to +the better instincts of her sex, but resolved to play no more with +elementary young Britons. One-eyed geologists were safer companions. The +former pitched their hearts into her lap; the latter, like Pawkins, the +geologist of the Pacific slope, gave her boxes of fossils. She preferred +the fossils. You could do what you liked with them: throw them overboard +when the donor was not looking, or leave them behind in a railway carriage, +or take them home and present them to the vicar who collected butterflies, +beetles, ammonites, and tobacco stoppers. But an odd assortment of hearts +to a woman who does not want them is really a confounded nuisance. Zora was +very much relieved when Dasent, after eating an enormous breakfast, bade +her a tragic farewell at Gibraltar. + + * * * * * + +It was a cloudless afternoon when she steamed into Marseilles. The barren +rock islands on the east rose blue-gray from a blue sea. To the west lay +the Isles of Frioul and the island of the Chateau d'If, with its prison +lying grim and long on the crest; in front the busy port, the white noble +city crowned by the church of Notre Dame de la Garde standing sentinel +against the clear sky. + +Zora stood on the crowded deck watching the scene, touched as she always +was by natural beauty, but sad at heart. Marseilles, within four-and-twenty +hours of London, meant home. Although she intended to continue her +wanderings to Naples and Alexandria, she felt that she had come to the end +of her journey. It had been as profitless as the last. Pawkins, by her +side, pointed out the geological feature of the rocks. She listened +vaguely, and wondered whether she was to bring him home tied to her chariot +as she had brought Septimus Dix and Clem Sypher. The thought of Sypher drew +her heart to Marseilles. + +"I wish I were landing here like you, and going straight home," she said, +interrupting the flow of scientific information. "I've already been to +Naples, and I shall find nothing I want at Alexandria." + +"Geologically, it's not very interesting," said Pawkins. "I'm afraid +prehistoric antiquity doesn't make my pulses beat faster." + +"That's the advantage of it." + +"One might just as well be a fossil oneself." + +"Much better," said Pawkins, who had read Schopenhauer. + +"You are not exhilarating to a depressed woman," said Zora with a laugh. + +"I am sorry," he replied stiffly. "I was trying to entertain you." + +He regarded her severely out of his one eye and edged away, as if he +repented having wasted his time over so futile an organism as a woman. But +her feminine magnetism drew him back. + +"I'm rather glad you are going on to Alexandria," he remarked in a tone of +displeasure, and before she could reply he marched off to look after his +luggage. + +Zora's eyes followed him until he disappeared, then she shrugged her +shoulders. Apparently one-eyed geologists were as unsafe as elementary +young Britons and opulent senators. She felt unfairly treated by +Providence. It was maddening to realize herself as of no use in the +universe except to attract the attention of the opposite sex. She clenched +her hands in impotent anger. There was no mission on earth which she could +fulfil. She thought enviously of Cousin Jane. + +The steamer entered the harbor; the passengers for Marseilles landed, and +the mail was brought aboard. There was only one letter for Mrs. Middlemist. +It bore the Nunsmere postmark. She opened it and found the tail of the +little china dog. + +She looked at it for a moment wonderingly as it lay absurdly curled in the +palm of her hand, and then she burst into tears. The thing was so +grotesquely trivial. It meant so much. It was a sign and a token falling, +as it were, from the sky into the midst of her despairing mood, rebuking +her, summoning her, declaring an unknown mission which she was bound to +execute. It lay in her hand like a bit of destiny, inexorable, +unquestionable, silently compelling her forthwith to the human soul that +stood in great need of her. Fate had granted the wish she had expressed to +the one-eyed geologist. She landed at Marseilles, and sped homeward by the +night train, her heart torn with anxiety for Septimus. + +All night long the rhythmic clatter of the train shaped itself into the +burden of her words to him: "If ever you want me badly, send me the tail, +and I'll come to you from any distance." She had spoken then half +jestingly, all tenderly. That evening she had loved him "in a sort of way," +and now that he had sent for her, the love returned. The vivid experiences +of the past months which had blinded her to the quieter light of home faded +away into darkness. Septimus in urgent need, Emmy and Clem Sypher filled +her thoughts. She felt thankful that Sypher, strong and self-reliant, was +there to be her ally, should her course with Septimus be difficult. Between +them they could surely rescue the ineffectual being from whatever dangers +assailed him. But what could they be? The question racked her. Did it +concern Emmy? A child, she knew, had just been born. A chill fear crept on +her lest some tragedy had occurred through Septimus's folly. From him any +outrageous senselessness might be expected, and Emmy herself was scarcely +less irresponsible than her babe. She reproached herself for having +suggested his marriage with Emmy. Perhaps in his vacant way he had acted +entirely on her prompting. The marriage was wrong. Two helpless children +should never have taken on themselves the graver duties of life toward +each other and, future generations. + +If it were a case in which a man's aid were necessary, there stood Sypher, +a great pillar of comfort. Unconsciously she compared him with the man with +whom she had come in contact during her travels--and she had met many of +great charm and strength and knowledge. For some strange reason which she +could not analyze, he towered above them all, though in each separate +quality of character others whom she could name surpassed him far. She knew +his faults, and in her lofty way smiled at them. Her character as goddess +or guardian angel or fairy patroness of the Cure she had assumed with the +graciousness of a grown-up lady playing charades at a children's party. His +occasional lapses from the traditions of her class jarred on her fine +susceptibilities. Yet there, in spite of all, he stood rooted in her life, +a fact, a puzzle, a pride and a consolation. The other men paled into +unimportant ghosts before him, and strayed shadowy through the limbo of her +mind. Till now she had not realized it. Septimus, however, had always dwelt +in her heart like a stray dog whom she had rescued from vagrancy. He did +not count as a man. Sypher did. Thus during the long, tedious hours of the +journey home the two were curiously mingled in her anxious conjectures, and +she had no doubt that Sypher and herself, the strong and masterful, would +come to the deliverance of the weak. + + * * * * * + +Septimus, who had received a telegram from Marseilles, waited for her train +at Victoria. In order to insure being in time he had arrived a couple of +hours too soon, and patiently wandered about the station. Now and then he +stopped before the engines of trains at rest, fascinated, as he always +was, by perfect mechanism. A driver, dismounting from the cab, and seeing +him lost in admiration of the engine, passed him a civil word, to which +Septimus, always courteous, replied. They talked further. + +"I see you're an engineer, sir," said the driver, who found himself in +conversation with an appreciative expert. + +"My father was," said Septimus. "But I could never get up in time for my +examinations. Examinations seem so silly. Why should you tell a set of men +what they know already?" + +The grimy driver expressed the opinion that examinations were necessary. He +who spoke had passed them. + +"I suppose you can get up at any time," Septimus remarked enviously. +"Somebody ought to invent a machine for those who can't." + +"You only want an alarm-clock," said the driver. + +Septimus shook his head. "They're no good. I tried one once, but it made +such a dreadful noise that I threw a boot at it." + +"Did that stop it?" + +"No," murmured Septimus. "The boot hit another clock on the mantelpiece, a +Louis Quinze clock, and spoiled it. I did get up, but I found the method +too expensive, so I never tried it again." + +The engine of an outgoing train blew off steam, and the resounding din +deafened the station. Septimus held his hands to his ears. The driver +grinned. + +"I can't stand that noise," Septimus explained when it was over. "Once I +tried to work out an invention for modifying it. It was a kind of +combination between a gramaphone and an orchestrion. You stuck it inside +somewhere, and instead of the awful screech a piece of music would come +out of the funnel. In fact, it might have gone on playing all the time the +train was in motion. It would have been so cheery for the drivers, wouldn't +it?" + +The unimaginative mechanic whose wits were scattered by this fantastic +proposition used his bit of cotton waste as a handkerchief, and remarked +with vague politeness that it was a pity the gentleman was not an engineer. +But Septimus deprecated the compliment. He looked wistfully up at the +girders of the glass roof and spoke in his gentle, tired voice. + +"You see," he concluded, "if I had been in practice as an engineer I should +never have designed machinery in the orthodox way. I should have always put +in little things of my own--and then God knows what would have happened." + +He brought his eyes to earth with a wan smile, but his companion had +vanished. A crowd had filled the suburban platform at the end of which he +stood, and in a few moments the train clattered off. Then, remembering that +he was hungry, he went to the refreshment-room, where, at the suggestion of +the barmaid, he regaled himself on two hard-boiled eggs and a glass of +sherry. The meal over, he loitered palely about the busy station, jostled +by frantic gentlemen in silk hats rushing to catch suburban trains, and +watched grimly by a policeman who suspected a pocket-picking soul beneath +his guileless exterior. + +At last, by especial grace of heaven, he found himself on the platform +where the custom-house barrier and the long line of waiting porters +heralded the approach of the continental train. Now that only a few moments +separated him from Zora, his heart grew cold with suspense. He had not seen +her since the night of Emmy's fainting fit. Her letters, though kind, had +made clear to him her royal displeasure at his unceremonious marriage. For +the first time he would look into her gold-flecked eyes out of a +disingenuous soul. Would she surprise his guilty secret? It was the only +thing he feared in a bewildering world. + +The train came in, and as her carriage flashed by Zora saw him on the +platform with his hat off, passing his fingers nervously through his +Struwel Peter hair. The touch of the familiar welcoming her brought +moisture to her eyes. As soon as the train stopped she alighted, and +leaving Turner (who had accompanied her on the pilgrimage, and from Dover +had breathed fervent thanks to Heaven that at last she was back in the land +of her fathers) to look after her luggage, she walked down the platform to +meet him. + +He was just asking a porter at frantic grapple with the hand baggage of a +large family whether he had seen a tall and extraordinarily beautiful lady +in the train, when she came up to him with outstretched hands and beaming +eyes. He took the hands and looked long at her, unable to speak. Never had +she appeared to him more beautiful, more gracious. The royal waves of her +hair beneath a fur traveling-toque invested her with queenliness. The full +youth of her figure not hidden by a fur jacket brought to him the generous +woman. A bunch of violets at her bosom suggested the fragrant essence of +her. + +"Oh, it's good to see you, Septimus. It's good!" she cried. "The sight of +you makes me feel as if nothing mattered in the world except the people one +cares for. How are you?" + +"I'm very well indeed," said Septimus. "Full of inventions." + +She laughed and guided him up the platform through the cross-traffic of +porters carrying luggage from train to cabs. + +"Is mother all right?" she asked anxiously. + +"Oh, yes," said Septimus. + +"And Emmy and the baby?" + +"Remarkably well. Emmy has had him christened. I wanted him to be called +after you. Zoroaster was the only man's name I could think of, but she did +not like it, and so she called it Octavius after me. Also Oldrieve after +the family, and William." + +"Why William?" + +"After Pitt," said Septimus in the tone of a man who gives the obvious +answer. + +She halted for a moment, perplexed. + +"Pitt?" + +"Yes; the great statesman. He's going to be a member of Parliament, you +know." + +"Oh," said Zora, moving slowly on. + +"His mother says it's after the lame donkey on the common. We used to call +it William. He hasn't changed a bit since you left." + +"So the baby's full name is--" said Zora, ignoring the donkey. + +"William Octavius Oldrieve Dix. It's so helpful to a child to have a good +name." + +"I long to see him," said Zora. + +"He's in Paris just now." + +"Paris?" she echoed. + +"Oh, he's not by himself, you know," Septimus hastened to reassure her, +lest she might think that the babe was alone among the temptations and +dissipations of the gay city. "His mother's there, too." + +She shook him by the coat-sleeve. + +"What an exasperating thing you are! Why didn't you tell me? I could have +broken my journey or at least asked them to meet me at the Gare du Nord. +But why aren't they in England?" + +"I didn't bring them with me." + +She laughed again at his tone, suspecting nothing. + +"You speak as if you had accidentally left them behind, like umbrellas. Did +you?" + +Turner came up, attended by a porter with the hand baggage. + +"Are you going on to Nunsmere to-night, ma'am?" + +"Why should you?" asked Septimus. + +"I had intended to do so. But if mother is quite well, and Emmy and the +baby are in Paris, and you yourself are here, I don't quite see the +necessity." + +"It would be much nicer if you remained in London," said he. + +"Very well," said Zora, "we shall. We can put up at the Grosvenor Hotel +here for the night. Where are you staying?" + +Septimus murmured the name of his sedate club, where his dissolute morning +appearance was still remembered against him. + +"Go and change and come back and dine with me in an hour's time." + +He obeyed the command with his usual meekness, and Zora followed the porter +through the subway to the hotel. + +"We haven't dined together like this," she said, unfolding her napkin an +hour afterwards, "since Monte Carlo. Then it was hopelessly unconventional. +Now we can dine in the strictest propriety. Do you understand that you're +my brother-in-law?" + +She laughed, radiant, curiously happy at being with him. She realized, with +a little shock of discovery, the restfulness that was the essential quality +of his companionship. He was a quiet haven after stormy seas; he +represented something intimate and tender in her life. + +They spoke for a while of common things: her train journey, the crossing, +the wonders she had seen. He murmured incoherent sketches of his life in +Paris, the new gun, and Hegisippe Cruchot. But of the reason for his +summons he said nothing. At last she leaned across the table and said +gently: + +"Why am I here, Septimus? You haven't told me." + +"Haven't I?" + +"No. You see, the little dog's tail brought me post-haste to you, but it +gave me no inkling why you wanted me so badly." + +He looked at her in his scared manner. + +"Oh, I don't want you at all; at least, I do--most tremendously--but not +for myself." + +"For whom, then?" + +"Clem Sypher," said Septimus. + +She paled slightly, and looked down at her plate and crumbled bread. For a +long time she did not speak. The announcement did not surprise her. In an +inexplicable way it seemed natural. Septimus and Sypher had shared her +thoughts so oddly during her journey. An unaccountable shyness had checked +her impulse to inquire after his welfare. Indeed, now that the name was +spoken she could scarcely believe that she had not expected to hear it. + +"What is the matter?" she asked at length. + +"The Cure has failed." + +"Failed?" + +She looked up at him half incredulously. The very last letter she had +received from Sypher had been full of the lust of battle. Septimus nodded +gloomily. + +"It was only a silly patent ointment like a hundred others, but it was +Sypher's religion. Now his gods have gone, and he's lost. It's not good for +a man to have no gods. I didn't have any once, and the devils came in. They +drove me to try haschisch. But it must have been very bad haschisch, for it +made me sick, and so I was saved." + +"What made you send for me so urgently? The dog's tail--you knew I had to +come." + +"Sypher wanted you--to give him some new gods." + +"He could have sent for me himself. Why did he ask you?" + +"He didn't," cried Septimus. "He doesn't know anything about it. He hasn't +the faintest idea that you're in London to-night. Was I wrong in bringing +you back?" + +To Zora the incomprehensible aspect of the situation was her own attitude. +She did not know whether Septimus was wrong or not. She told herself that +she ought to resent the summons which had caused her such needless anxiety +as to his welfare, but she could feel no resentment. Sypher had failed. The +mighty had fallen. She pictured a broken-hearted man, and her own heart +ached for him. + +"You did right, Septimus," she said very gently. "But of what use can I be +to him?" + +Septimus said: "He's the one to tell you that." + +"But do you think he knows? He didn't before. He wanted me to stay as a +kind of Mascotte for the Cure--simply sit still while he drew influence +out of me or something. It was absurd." + +It was on this occasion that Septimus made his one contribution to +pessimistic philosophy. + +"When you analyze anything in life," said he, "don't you think that you +always come down to a _reductio ad absurdum?_" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +"I'm very sorry to leave you, Mr. Sypher," said Shuttleworth, "but my first +duty is to my wife and family." + +Clem Sypher leaned back in his chair behind his great office desk and +looked at his melancholy manager with the eyes of a general whose officers +refuse the madness of a forlorn hope. + +"Quite so," he said tonelessly. "When do you want to go?" + +"You engaged me on a three-months' notice, but--" + +"But you want to go now?" + +"I have a very brilliant position offered me if I can take it up in a +fortnight." + +"Very well," said Sypher. + +"You won't say it's a case of rats deserting a sinking ship, will you, sir? +As I say, my wife and family--" + +"The ship's sinking. You're quite right to leave it. Is the position +offered you in the same line of business?" + +"Yes," said Shuttleworth, unable to meet his chief's clear, unsmiling eyes. + +"One of the rival firms?" + +Shuttleworth nodded, then broke out into mournful asseverations of loyalty. +Tithe Cure had flourished he would have stayed with Mr. Sypher till the day +of his death. He would have refused the brilliant offer. But in the +circumstances--" + +"_Sauve qui peut,_" said Sypher. "Another month or two and Sypher's Cure +becomes a thing of the past. Nothing can pull it through. I was too +sanguine. I wish I had taken your advice oftener, Shuttleworth." + +Shuttleworth thanked him for the compliment. + +"One learns by experience," said he modestly. "I was born and bred in the +patent-medicine business. It's very risky. You start a thing. It catches on +for a while. Then something else more attractive comes on the market. +There's a war of advertising, and the bigger capital wins. The wise man +gets out of it just before the rival comes. If you had taken my advice five +years ago, and turned it into a company, you'd have been a rich man now, +without a care in the world. Next time you will." + +"There'll be no next time," said Sypher gravely. + +"Why not? There's always money in patent medicines. For instance, in a new +cure for obesity if properly worked. A man like you can always get the +money together." + +"And the cure for obesity?" + +Shuttleworth's dismal face contracted into the grimace which passed with +him for a smile. + +"Any old thing will do, so long as it doesn't poison people." + +Uncomfortable under his chief's silent scrutiny, he took off his +spectacles, breathed on them, and wiped them with his handkerchief. + +"The public will buy anything, if you advertise it enough." + +"I suppose they will," said Sypher. "Even Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy." + +Shuttleworth started and put on his spectacles. + +"Why shouldn't they buy the Remedy, after all?" + +"You ask me that?" said Sypher. All through the interview he had not +shifted his position. He sat fixed like a florid ghost. + +The manager shuffled uneasily in his chair beside the desk, and cleared +his throat nervously. + +"I'm bound to," said he, "in self-defense. I know what you think of the +Cure--but that's a matter of sentiment. I've been into the thing pretty +thoroughly, and I know that there's scarcely any difference in the +composition of the Remedy and the Cure. After all, any protecting grease +that keeps the microbes in the air out of the sore place does just as +well--sometimes better. There's nothing in patent ointment that really +cures. Now is there?" + +"Are you going to the Jebusa Jones people?" asked Sypher. + +"I have my wife and family," the manager pleaded. "I couldn't refuse. +They've offered me the position of their London agent. I know it must pain +you," he added hurriedly, "but what could I do?" + +"Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. So you will give me +what they used to call my _coup de grace_. You'll just stab me dead as I +lie dying. Well, in a fortnight's time you can go." + +The other rose. "Thank you very much, Mr. Sypher. You have always treated +me generously, and I'm more than sorry to leave you. You bear me no ill +will?" + +"For going from one quack remedy to another? Certainly not." + +It was only when the door closed behind the manager that Sypher relaxed his +attitude. He put both hands up to his face, and then fell forward on to the +desk, his head on his arms. + +The end had come. To that which mattered in the man, the lingering faith +yet struggling in the throes of dissolution, Shuttleworth had indeed given +the _coup de grace_. That he had joined the arch-enemy who in a short time +would achieve his material destruction signified little. When something +spiritual is being done to death, the body and mind are torpid. Even a +month ago, had Shuttleworth uttered such blasphemy within those walls Clem +Sypher would have arisen in his wrath like a mad crusader and have cloven +the blasphemer from skull to chine. To-day, he had sat motionless, +petrified, scarcely able to feel. He knew that the man spoke truth. As well +put any noxious concoction of drugs on the market and call it a specific +against obesity or gravel or deafness as Sypher's Cure. Between the +heaven-sent panacea which was to cleanse the skin of the nations and send +his name ringing down the centuries as the Friend of Humanity and the +shiveringly vulgar Jebusa Jones's Cuticle Remedy there was not an atom of +important difference. One was as useful or as useless as the other. The +Cure was pale green; the Remedy rose pink. Women liked the latter best on +account of its color. Both were quack medicaments. + +He raised a drawn and agonized face and looked around the familiar room, +where so many gigantic schemes had been laid, where so many hopes had shone +radiant, and saw for the first time its blatant self-complacency, its +piteous vulgarity. Facing him was the artist's original cartoon for the +great poster which once had been famous all over the world, and now, for +lack of money, only lingered in shreds on a forgotten hoarding in some Back +of Beyond. It represented the Friend of Humanity, in gesture, white beard, +and general appearance resembling a benevolent minor prophet, distributing +the Cure to a scrofulous universe. In those glorified days, he had striven +to have his own lineaments depicted above the robe of the central figure, +but the artist had declared them to be unpictorial, and clung to the +majesty of the gentleman in the white beard. Around the latter's feet were +gathered a motley crew--the fine lady in her ball dress, the shoeblack, the +crowned king, the red Indian in Fenimore Cooper feathers, the half-naked +negro, the wasted, ragged mother with her babe, the jockey, the Syrian +leper, and a score of other types of humans, including in the background a +hairy-faced creature, the "dog-faced man" of Barnum's show. They were well +grouped, effective, making the direct appeal to an Anglo-Saxon populace, +which in its art must have something to catch hold of, like the tannin in +its overdrawn tea. It loved to stand before this poster and pick out the +easily recognized characters and argue (as Sypher, whose genius had +suggested the inclusion of the freak had intended) what the hairy creature +could represent, and, as it stood and picked and argued, the great fact of +Sypher's Cure sank deep into their souls. He remembered the glowing pride +with which he had regarded this achievement, the triumphal progress he made +in a motor-car around the London hoardings the day after the poster had +been pasted abroad. And now he knew it in his heart to be nothing but a +tawdry, commercial lie. + +Framed in oak on his walls hung kindly notes relating to the Cure from +great personages or their secretaries. At the bottom of one ran the +sprawling signature of the Grand Duke who had hailed him as "_ce bon +Sypher_" at the Gare de Lyon when he started on the disastrous adventure of +the blistered heel. There was the neatly docketed set of pigeonholes +containing the proofs of all the advertisements he had issued. Lying before +him on his desk was a copy, resplendently bound in morocco for his own +gratification, of the forty-page, thin-paper pamphlet which was wrapped, a +miracle of fine folding, about each packet of the Cure. On each page the +directions for use were given in a separate language. French, Fijian, +Syrian, Basque were there--forty languages--so that all the sons of men +could read the good tidings and amuse themselves at the same time by trying +to decipher the message in alien tongues. + +Wherever he looked, some mockery of vain triumph met his eye: an +enlargement of a snapshot photograph of the arrival of the first case of +the Cure on the shores of Lake Tchad; photographs of the busy factory, now +worked by a dwindling staff; proofs of full-page advertisements in which +"Sypher's Cure" and "Friend of Humanity" figured in large capitals; the +model of Edinburgh Castle, built by a grateful inmate of a lunatic asylum +out of the red celluloid boxes of the Cure. + +He shuddered at all these symbols and images of false gods, and bowed his +head again on his arms. The abyss swallowed him. The waters closed over his +head. + +How long he remained like this he did not know. He had forbidden his door. +The busy life of the office stood still. The dull roar of Moorgate Street +was faintly heard, and now and then the windows vibrated faintly. The +sprawling, gilt, mid-Victorian clock on the mantelpiece had stopped. + +Presently an unusual rustle in the room caused him to raise his head with a +start. Zora Middlemist stood before him. He sprang to his feet. + +"You? You?" + +"They wouldn't let me in. I forced my way. I said I must see you." + +He stared at her, open-mouthed. A shivering thrill passed through him, +such as shakes a man on the verge of a great discovery. + +"You, Zora? You have come to me at this moment?" + +He looked so strange and staring, so haggard and disheveled, that she moved +quickly to him and laid both her hands on his. + +"My dear friend, my dearest friend, is it as bad as that?" + +A throb of pain underlay the commonplace words. The anguish on his face +stirred the best and most womanly in her. She yearned to comfort him. But +he drew a pace or two away, and held up both hands as if warding her off, +and stared at her still, but with a new light in his clear eyes that drank +in her beauty and the sorcery of her presence. + +"My God!" he cried, in a strained voice. "My God! What a fool I've been!" + +He swerved as if he had received a blow and sank into his office chair, and +turned his eyes from her to the ground, and sat stunned with joy and wonder +and misery. He put out a hand blindly, and she took it, standing by his +side. He knew now what he wanted. He wanted her, the woman. He wanted her +voice in his ears, her kiss on his lips, her dear self in his arms. He +wanted her welcome as he entered his house, her heart, her soul, her mind, +her body, everything that was hers. He loved her for herself, passionately, +overwhelmingly, after the simple way of men. He had raised his eyes from +the deeps of hell, and in a flash she was revealed to him--incarnate +heaven. + +He felt the touch of her gloved hand on his, and it sent a thrill through +his veins which almost hurt, as the newly coursing blood hurts the man that +has been revived from torpor. The mistiness that serves a strong man for +tears clouded his sight. He had longed for her; she had come. From their +first meeting he had recognized, with the visionary's glimpse of the +spiritual, that she was the woman of women appointed unto him for help and +comfort. But then the visionary had eclipsed the man. Destiny had naught to +do with him but as the instrument for the universal spreading of the Cure. +The Cure was his life. The woman appointed unto him was appointed unto the +Cure equally with himself. He had violently credited her with his insane +faith. He had craved her presence as a mystical influence that in some way +would paralyze the Jebusa Jones Dragon and give him supernatural strength +to fight. He had striven with all his power to keep her radiant like a +star, while his own faith lay dying. + +He had been a fool. All the time it was the sheer woman that had held him, +the sheer man. And yet had not destiny fulfilled itself with a splendid +irony in sending her to him then, in that moment of his utter anguish, of +the utter annihilation of the fantastic faith whereby he had lived for +years? From the first he had been right, though with a magnificent lunacy. +It was she, in very truth, who had been destined to slay his dragon. It was +dead now, a vulgar, slimy monster, incapable of hurt, slain by the +lightning flash of love, when his eyes met hers, a moment or two ago. In a +confused way he realized this. He repeated mechanically: + +"What a fool I've been! What a fool I've been!" + +"Why?" asked Zora, who did not understand. + +"Because--" he began, and then he stopped, finding no words. "I wonder +whether God sent you?" + +"I'm afraid it was only Septimus," she said with a smile. + +"Septimus?" + +He was startled. What could Septimus have to do with her coming? He rose +again, and focusing his whirling senses on conventional things, wheeled an +armchair to the fire, and led her to it, and took his seat near her in his +office chair. + +"Forgive me," he said, "but your coming seemed supernatural. I was dazed by +the wonderful sight of you. Perhaps it's not you, after all. I may be going +mad and have hallucinations. Tell me that it's really you." + +"It's me, in flesh and blood--you can touch for yourself--and my sudden +appearance is the simplest thing in the world." + +"But I thought you were going to winter in Egypt?" + +"So did I, until I reached Marseilles. This is how it was." + +She told him of the tail of the little china dog, and of her talk with +Septimus the night before. + +"So I came to you," she concluded, "as soon as I decently could, this +morning." + +"And I owe you to Septimus," he said. + +"Ah, I know! You ought to have owed me to yourself," she cried, +misunderstanding him. "If I had known things were so terrible with you I +would have come. I would, really. But I was misled by your letters. They +were so hopeful. Don't reproach me." + +"Reproach you! You who have given this crazy fellow so much! You who come +to me all sweetness and graciousness, with heaven in your eyes, after +having been dragged across Europe and made to sacrifice your winter of +sunshine, just for my sake! Ah, no! It's myself that I reproach." + +"For what?" she asked. + +"For being a fool, a crazy, blatant, self-centered fool My God!" he +exclaimed, smiting the arm of his chair as a new view of things suddenly +occurred to him. "How can you sit there--how have you suffered me these two +years--without despising me? How is it that I haven't been the mock and +byword of Europe? I must have been!" + +He rose and walked about the room in great agitation. + +"These things have all come crowding up together. One can't realize +everything at once. 'Clem Sypher, Friend of Humanity!' How they must have +jeered behind my back if they thought me sincere! How they must have +despised me if they thought me nothing but an advertising quack! Zora +Middlemist, for heaven's sake tell me what you have thought of me. What +have you taken me for--a madman or a charlatan?" + +"It is you that must tell me what has happened," said Zora earnestly. "I +don't know. Septimus gave me to understand that the Cure had failed. He's +never clear about anything in his own mind, and he's worse when he tries to +explain it to others." + +"Septimus," said Sypher, "is one of the children of God." + +"But he's a little bit incoherent on earth," she rejoined, with a smile. +"What has really happened?" + +Sypher drew a long breath and pulled himself up. + +"I'm on the verge of a collapse. The Cure hasn't paid for the last two +years. I hoped against hope. I flung thousands and thousands into the +concern. The Jebusa Jones people and others out-advertised me, +out-manoeuvered me at every turn. Now every bit of capital is gone, and I +can't raise any more. I must go under." + +Zora began, "I have a fairly large fortune--" + +He checked her with a gesture, and looked at her clear and full. + +"God bless you," he said. "My heart didn't lie to me at Monte Carlo when it +told me that you were a great-souled woman. Tell me. Have you ever believed +in the Cure in the sense that I believed in it?" + +Zora returned his gaze. Here was no rhodomontading. The man was grappling +with realities. + +"No," she replied simply. + +"Neither do I any longer," said Sypher. "There is no difference between it +and any quack ointment you can buy at the first chemist's shop. That is +why, even if I saw a chance of putting the concern on its legs again, I +couldn't use your money. That is why I asked you, just now, what you have +thought of me--a madman or a quack?" + +"Doesn't the mere fact of my being here show you what I thought of you?" + +"Forgive me," he said. "It's wrong to ask you such questions." + +"It's worse than wrong. It's unnecessary." + +He passed his hands over his eyes, and sat down. + +"I've gone through a lot to-day. I'm not quite myself, so you must forgive +me if I say unnecessary things. God sent you to me this morning. Septimus +was His messenger. If you hadn't appeared just now I think I should have +gone into black madness." + +"Tell me all about it," she said softly. "All that you care to tell. I am +your nearest friend--I think." + +"And dearest." + +"And you are mine. You and Septimus. I've seen hundreds of people since +I've been away, and some seem to have cared for me--but there's no one +really in my life but you two." + +Sypher thought: "And we both love you with all there is in us, and you +don't know it." He also thought jealously: "Who are the people that have +cared for you?" + +He said: "No one?" + +A smile parted her lips as she looked him frankly in the eyes and repeated +the negative. He breathed a sigh of relief, for he had remembered +Rattenden's prophecy of the big man whom she was seeking, of the love for +the big man, the gorgeous tropical sunshine in which all the splendor in +her could develop. She had not found him. From the depths of his man's +egotism he uttered a prayer of thanksgiving. + +"Tell me," she said again. + +"Do you remember my letter from Paris in the summer?" + +"Yes. You had a great scheme for the armies of the world." + +"That was the beginning," said he, and then he told her all the grotesque +story to the end, from the episode of the blistered heel. He told her +things that he had never told himself; things that startled him when he +found them expressed in words. + +"In Russia," said he, "every house has its sacred pictures, even the +poorest peasant's hut. They call them ikons. These," waving to the walls, +"were my ikons. What do you think of them?" + +For the first time Zora became aware of the furniture and decoration of the +room. The cartoon, the advertisement proofs, the model of Edinburgh Castle, +produced on her the same effect as the famous board in the garden at Fenton +Court. Then, however, she could argue with him on the question of taste, +and lay down laws as the arbiter of the elegancies of conduct. Now he +viewed the sorry images with her own eyes, and he had gone through fire to +attain this clearness of vision. What could be said? Zora the magnificent +and self-reliant found not a word, though her heart was filled with pity. +She was brought face to face with a ridiculous soul-tragedy, remote from +her poor little experience of life. It was no time to act the beneficent +goddess. She became self-conscious, fearful to speak lest she might strike +a wrong note of sympathy. She wanted to give the man so much, and she could +give him so little. + +"I'm dying to help you," she said, rather piteously. "But how can I?" + +"Zora," he said huskily. + +She glanced up at him and he held her eyes with his, and she saw how she +could help him. + +"No, don't--don't. I can't bear it." + +She rose and turned away. "Don't let us change things. They were so sweet +before. They were so strange--your wanting me as a sort of priestess--I +used to laugh--but I loved it all the time." + +"That's why I said I've been a fool, Zora." + +The bell of the telephone connected with his manager's office rang +jarringly. He seized the transmitter in anger. + +"How dare you ring me up when I gave orders I was to be undisturbed? I +don't care who wants to see me. I'll see nobody." + +He threw down the transmitter. "I'm very sorry," he began. Then he stopped. +The commonplace summons from the outer world brought with dismaying +suddenness to his mind the practical affairs of life. He was a ruined man. +The thought staggered him. How could he say to Zora Middlemist: "I am a +beggar. I want to marry you"? + +She came to him with both hands outstretched, her instinctive gesture when +her heart went out, and used his Christian name for the first time. + +"Clem, let us be friends--good friends--true, dear friends, but don't spoil +it all for me." + +When a woman, infinitely desired, pleads like that with glorious eyes, and +her fragrance and her dearness are within arm's length, a man has but to +catch her to him and silence her pleadings with a man's strength, and carry +her off in triumph. It has been the way of man with woman since the world +began, and Sypher knew it by his man's instinct. It was a temptation such +as he had never dreamed was in the world. He passed through a flaming, +blazing torment of battle. + +"Forget what I have said, Zora. We'll be friends, if you so wish it." + +He pressed her hands and turned away. Zora felt that she had gained an +empty victory. + +"I ought to be going," she said. + +"Not yet. Let us sit down and talk like friends. It's many weary months +since I have seen you." + +She remained a little longer and they talked quietly of many things. On +bidding her good-by he said half playfully: + +"I've often wondered why you have taken up with a fellow like me." + +"I suppose it's because you're a big man," said Zora. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Septimus walked back to his club after his dinner with Zora, blessing his +stars for two reasons: first, because a gracious providence had restored +him to favor in his goddess's sight, and, secondly, because he had escaped +without telling her of the sundered lives of Emmy and himself. By the time +he went to bed, however, having pondered for some hours over the +interdependent relations between Zora, Sypher, Emmy, and himself, he had +entangled his mind into a condition of intricate complication. He longed to +continue to sun himself in the presence of his divinity. But being a +married man (no matter how nominally), too much sunning appeared +reprehensible. He had also arranged for the sunning of Clem Sypher, and was +aware of the indelicacy of two going through this delicious process at the +same time. He also dreaded the possible incredulity of Zora when he should +urge the ferociousness of his domestic demeanor as the reason for his +living apart from his wife. The consequence was that after a sleepless +night he bolted like a rabbit to his burrow at Nunsmere. At any rate, the +mission of the dog's tail was accomplished. + +His bolt took place on Friday. On Saturday morning he was awakened by +Wiggleswick. + +The latter's attire was not that of the perfect valet. He wore an old, +colored shirt open at the throat, a pair of trousers hitched up to his +shoulder blades by means of a pair of red braces, and a pair of dilapidated +carpet slippers. + +"Here's a letter." + +"Oh, post it," said Septimus sleepily. + +"You haven't written it. The missus has written it. It has a French stamp +and the Paris postmark. You'd better read it." + +He put it on his master's pillow, and went to the window to admire the +view. Septimus aroused, read the letter. It was from Emmy. It ran: + + "DEAREST SEPTIMUS: + + "I can't stand this loneliness in Paris any longer. I can't, I can't. If + you were here and I could see you even once a week, I shouldn't mind. But + to go on day after day indefinitely without a comforting word from you is + more than I can bear. You say the flat is ready. I am coming over at once + with baby and Madame Bolivard, who swears she will never leave me. How + she is going to get on in London without a word of English, I don't know. + I don't mind if I meet Zora. Perhaps it will be better for you that I + should. And I think it will be quite safe for me now. Don't hate me and + think me horrid and selfish, my dear Septimus, but I do want you. I do. I + do. Thanks for the toy train. Baby enjoys the paint on the carriages so + much; but Madame Bolivard says it isn't good for him. Dear, if I thought + you wouldn't forgive me for being such a worry, I wouldn't worry you. + + "Your always grateful + "EMMY." + + +Septimus lit the half-smoked pipe of the night before that lay on the +coverlet, and becoming aware of Wiggleswick, disturbed his contemplation of +nature by asking him if he had ever been married. + +"What?" asked Wiggleswick in the unmodulated tone of the deaf. + +"Have you ever been married, Wiggleswick?" + +"Heaps of times," said the old man. + +"Dear me," said Septimus. "Did you commit bigamy?" + +"Bigamy? No. I buried 'em all honorable." + +"That," said Septimus, "was very kind of you." + +"It was out of gratitude." + +"For their goodness?" + +"No. For being delivered from 'em. I had a lot of experience before I +could learn the blessedness of a single life." + +Septimus sighed. "Yet it must be very nice to have a wife, Wiggleswick." + +"But ain't yer got one?" bawled the disreputable body-servant. + +"Of course, of course," said Septimus hurriedly. "I was thinking of the +people who hadn't." + +Wiggleswick approached his master's bedside, with a mysteriously +confidential air. + +"Don't you think we're all cosy and comfortable here, sir?" + +"Yes," said Septimus dubiously. + +"Well, I for one have nothing to complain of. The vittles is good, and one +sleeps warm, and one has one's beer and 'baccy regular. What more does a +man want? Not women. Women's a regrettable hincident." + +"Aren't you cold standing there in your shirt sleeves, Wiggleswick?" asked +Septimus, in his hesitating way. + +Wiggleswick ignored the delicacy of the suggestion. + +"Cold? No. If I was cold, I'd precious soon make myself warm. Which I wish +to remark, Mr. Dix, that now you've parted with the missus pro tem., don't +you think it's more cosy and comfortable? I don't say but if she came here +I'd do my best willingly. I know my duty. But, sir, a woman, what with her +dusting and cleaning, and washing of herself in hot water, and putting +flowers in mugs do upset things terrible. I've been married oftener than +you. I know 'em. Don't you think we get on better, the two of us, as we +are?" + +"We get on very nicely," said Septimus politely, "but I'm afraid you'll +have to do some cleaning and dusting to-day. I'm awfully sorry to trouble +you. Mrs. Middlemist has returned to England, and may be down this +afternoon." + +A look of dismay came over Wiggleswick's crafty, weather-beaten face. + +"Well, I'm jiggered. I'm just jiggered," said he. + +"I'm delighted to hear it," murmured Septimus. "Bring me my shaving-water." + +"Are you going to get up?" asked Wiggleswick in a tone of disgusted +incredulity. + +"Yes." + +"Then you'll be wanting breakfast." + +"Oh, no," said Septimus, with the wan smile that sometimes flickered over +his features, "afternoon tea will do--with some bacon and eggs and things." + +The old man went out grumbling, and Septimus turned to his letter. It was +very kind of Emmy, he thought, to write to him so affectionately. + +He spent the mild, autumn morning on the common consulting the ducks in the +pond, and seeking inspiration from the lame donkey, his state of mind being +still complicated. The more he reflected on Emmy's letter and on +Wiggleswick's views on women the less did he agree with Wiggleswick. He +missed Emmy, who had treated him very tenderly since their talk in the +moonlight at Hottetot-sur-Mer; and he missed the boy who, in the later days +in Paris, after her return, had conceived an infantile infatuation for him, +and would cease crying or go to sleep peacefully if only he could gather a +clump of Septimus's hair in his tiny fingers. He missed a thousand gossamer +trifles--each one so imperceptible, all added together so significant. He +was not in the least cosy and comfortable with his old villain of a +serving-man. + +Thus he looked forward, in his twilight way, to Emmy's coming. He would +live, perhaps, sometimes in Nunsmere and sometimes in London. Quite lately, +on visiting his bankers, in order to make arrangements for the disposal of +his income, he was surprised to find how rich he was; and the manager, an +astoundingly well-informed person, explained that a commercial concern in +which he held many shares had reached such a pitch of prosperity as to +treble his dividends. He went away with the vague notion that commercial +companies were models of altruistic generosity. The main point, however, +made clear by the exceptionally intelligent manager, being that he was +richer by several hundreds a year, he began to dream of a more resplendent +residence for Emmy and the boy than the little flat in Chelsea. He had +observed that there were very nice houses in Berkeley Square. He wondered +how much a year they were, with rates and taxes. For himself, he could +perch in any attic close by. He resolved to discuss Berkeley Square with +Emmy as soon as she arrived. William Octavius Oldrieve Dix, Member of +Parliament, ought to start life in proper surroundings. + +Clem Sypher, down for the week-end at Penton Court, burst in upon him +during the afternoon. He came with exciting news. The high official in the +Ordnance Department of the War Office had written to him that morning to +the effect that he was so greatly impressed by the new quick-firing gun +that he proposed to experiment forthwith, and desired to be put into +communication with the inventor. + +"That's very nice," said Septimus, "but shall I have to go and see him?" + +"Of course," cried Sypher. "You'll have to interview boards and gunners +and engineers, and superintend experiments. You'll be a person of +tremendous importance." + +"Oh, dear!" said Septimus, "I couldn't. I couldn't, really." + +He was panic-stricken at the notion. + +"You'll have to," laughed Sypher. + +Septimus clutched at straws. "I'm afraid I shall be too busy. Emmy's coming +to London--and there's the boy's education. You see, he has to go to +Cambridge. Look here," he added, a brilliant idea occurring to him, "I'm +fearfully rich; I don't want any more money. I'll sell you the thing +outright for the two hundred pounds you advanced me, and then I shan't have +anything more to do with it." + +"I think before you make any proposals of the kind you ought to consult +Mrs. Dix," said Sypher with a laugh. + +"Or Zora." + +"Or Zora," said Sypher. "She came down by the same train as I did. I told +her the good news. She was delighted." + +He did not inform Septimus that, for all her delight, Zora had been +somewhat sceptical. She loved Septimus, she admitted, but his effectuality +in any sphere of human endeavor was unimaginable. Could anything good come +out of Nazareth? + +About half an hour later the goddess herself arrived, shown in by +Wiggleswick, who had been snatching the pipe of the over-driven by the +front-gate. She looked flushed, resolute, indignant, and, on seeing Sypher, +she paused for a second on the threshold. Then she entered. Sypher took up +his hat and stick. + +"No, no. You had better stay. You may help us. I suppose you know all +about it." + +Septimus's heart sank. He knew what "it" meant. + +"Yes, Sypher knows. I told him." + +"But why didn't you tell me, dear Septimus, instead of letting me hear of +it from mother and Cousin Jane? I don't think it was loyal to me." + +"I forgot," said Septimus in desperation. "You see, I sometimes remember it +and sometimes forget it. I'm not used to getting married. Wiggleswick has +been married several times. He was giving me a lot of advice this morning." + +"Anyhow, it's true?" asked Zora, disregarding Wiggleswick. + +"Oh, yes! You see, my ungovernable temper--" + +"Your what?" + +It was no use. On receiving the announcement she looked just as he had +expected her to look. He tried to stammer out his catalogue of infamies, +but failed. She burst out laughing, and Sypher, who knew all and was +anxiously wondering how to save the situation, laughed too. + +"My poor, dear Septimus," she said kindly, "I don't believe a word of it. +The woman who couldn't get on with you must be a virago. I don't care +whether she's my own sister or not, she is treating you abominably." + +"But, indeed she's not," pleaded poor Septimus. "We're the best of friends. +I really want to live like this. I do. I can't live without Wiggleswick. +See how cosy and comfortable he makes me." + +Zora looked round, and the cosiness and comfort made her gasp. Cobwebs hung +from the old oak beams across the ceiling; a day or two's ashes defiled the +grate; the windows were splashed with mud and rain. There were no +curtains. Her finger drawn along the green baize table-cloth revealed the +dust. A pair of silver candlesticks on the mantelpiece were stained an +iridescent brown. The mirror was fly-blown. In the corner of the room a +tray held the remains of the last meal, and a plate containing broken food +had overflowed onto a neighboring chair. An odd, uncleaned boot lay, like a +frowsy, drunken visitor, on the floor. The springs of the armchair on which +she sat were broken. + +"It's not fit for a pig to live in," she declared. "It's a crime to leave +you to that worthless old scoundrel. I'll talk to him before I go. He won't +like it. And then I'll write to Emmy. If that has no effect, I'll go over +to Paris and bring her to her senses." + +She had arrived royally indignant, having had a pitched battle with Cousin +Jane, who took Emmy's side and alluded to Septimus in terms of withering +contempt. Now she was furiously angry. The two men looked at her with +wistful adoration, for when Zora was furious in a good cause she was very +beautiful. And the adoration in each man's heart was intensified by the +consciousness of the pathetic futility of her noble rage. It was for her +own sake that the situation had arisen over which she made such a pother, +and she was gloriously unconscious of it. Sypher could not speak lest he +should betray his knowledge of Septimus's secret, and Septimus could only +murmur incoherent ineffectualities concerning the perfection of Emmy, the +worthlessness of himself, and the diamond soul that lodged in Wiggleswick's +forbidding body. Zora would not listen to unreason. It was Emmy's duty to +save her husband from the dust and ashes of his present cosiness, if she +could do nothing else for him; and she, Zora, in her magnificence, was +going to see that Emmy's duty was performed. Instead of writing she would +start the next morning for Paris. It would be well if Septimus could +accompany her. + +"Mrs. Dix is coming to London, I believe," said Sypher. + +Zora looked inquiringly at Septimus, who explained dis cursively. Zora +renounced Paris. She would wait for Emmy. For the time being the incident +was closed. Septimus, in his hospitality, offered tea. + +"I'll get it for you," said Zora. "It will be a good opportunity to speak +sweetly to Wiggleswick." + +She swept out of the room; the two men lit cigarettes and smoked for a +while in silence. At last Sypher asked: + +"What made you send her the tail of the little dog?" + +Septimus reddened, and ran two of the fingers of the hand holding the +cigarette up his hair, and spilled half an inch of ash on his head. + +"I broke the dog, you see," he explained luminously, "I knocked it off the +mantelpiece. I'm always doing it. When Emmy has a decent house I'll invent +something to keep dogs and things on mantelpieces." + +Sypher said: "Do you know you've done me one of those services which one +man rarely does for another. I'll never forget it to my dying day. By +bringing her to me you've saved my reason. You've made me a different +being. I'm Clem Sypher--but, by God you're the Friend of Humanity." + +Septimus looked at him with the terrified expression of a mediaeval +wrongdoer, writhing under an ecclesiastical curse. He made abject apology. + +"It was the only thing I could do," said he. + +"Of course it was. And that's why you did it. I never dreamed when you +told me to wait until I saw her before going mad or breaking my heart that +you meant to send for her. It has set me in front of a new universe." + +He rose and stretched his large limbs and smiled confidently at the world +out of his clear blue eyes. Two little words of Zora had inspired him with +the old self-reliance and sense of predestination to great things. Out of +her own mouth had come the words which, when they had come out of +Rattenden's, had made his heart sink in despair. She had called him a "big +man." Like many big men, he was superstitious. He believed Rattenden's +prophetic utterance concerning Zora. He was, indeed, set in front of a new +universe, and Septimus had done it by means of the tail of a little china +dog. + +As he was stretching himself, Wiggleswick shambled in, with the fear of +Zora written on his wrinkled brow, and removed the tray and the plate of +broken victuals. What had passed between them neither he nor Zora would +afterwards relate; but Wiggleswick spent the whole of that night and the +following days in unremitting industry, so that the house became spick and +span as his own well-remembered prison cells. There also was a light of +triumph in Zora's eyes when she entered a few moments afterwards with the +tea-tray, which caused Sypher to smile and a wicked feeling of content to +enter Septimus's mild bosom. + +"I think it was high time I came home," she remarked, pouring out the tea. + +The two men supported the proposition. The western hemisphere, where she +had tarried so long, could get on very well by itself. In the meantime the +old eastern hemisphere had been going to pieces. They had a gay little +meal. Now that Zora had settled Wiggleswick, arranged her plan of campaign +against Emmy, and established very agreeable and subtle relations between +Sypher and herself, she could afford to shed all her charm and gaiety and +graciousness on her subjects. She was infinitely glad to be with them +again. Nunsmere had unaccountably expanded; she breathed freely and no +longer knocked her head against beams in bedroom ceilings. + +She rallied Septimus on his new gun. + +"He's afraid of it," said Sypher. + +"What! Afraid of its going off?" she laughed. + +"Oh, no," said Septimus. "I've heard lots of them go off." + +"When?" asked Zora. + +Septimus reddened, and for once was at a loss for one of the curiously +evasive answers in which his timidity took refuge. He fidgeted in his +chair. Zora repeated her jesting question. "Was it when they were firing +royal salutes in St. James's Park?" + +"No," said Septimus. + +His back being against the fading light she could not perceive the +discomfiture on his face. She longed to elicit some fantastic irrelevance. + +"Well, where was it? Why this mystery?" + +"I'll tell you two," said Septimus. "I've never told you before. In fact, +I've never told any one--not even Wiggleswick. I don't like to think of it. +It hurts. You may have wondered how I ever got any practical acquaintance +with gunnery. I once held a commission in the Militia Garrison Artillery. +That's how I came to love guns." + +"By why should that pain you, my dear Septimus?" asked Zora. + +"They said I was incompetent," he murmured, brokenly, "and took away my +commission. The colonel said I was a disgrace to the service." + +Clem Sypher smote the arm of his chair and started up in his wrath. + +"By heavens! I'll make the blundering idiot eat his words. I'll ram them +down his throat with the cleaner of the new gun. I'll make you the biggest +ornament the service ever possessed. I'll devote my existence to it! The +Dix gun shall wipe humanity off the face of the earth!" + +"I don't want it to do that," said Septimus, meekly. + +Zora begged his forgiveness very sweetly for her indiscretion, and having +comforted him with glowing prophecies of fame and domestic happiness, went +home with a full heart. She loved Sypher for his generous outburst. She was +deeply touched by Septimus's tragic story, but having a sense of humor she +could not repress a smile at the thought of Septimus in uniform, handling a +battery of artillery. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Cousin Jane was for packing her boxes and departing, but Zora bade her +remain until her own plans were settled. As soon as Emmy arrived she would +have to go to London and play fairy godmother, a proceeding which might +take up considerable time. Mrs. Oldrieve commended her beneficent +intention, and besought her to bring the irreligiously wedded pair to the +Vicar, and have them wedded in a respectable, Anglican way. She was firmly +convinced that if this were done, nothing more could possibly be heard of +separate lives. Zora promised to do her best, but Cousin Jane continued to +sniff. It would be far better, she declared, to shut the man up in an idiot +asylum and bring Emmy to Nunsmere, where the child could have a decent +upbringing. Zora dissented loftily, but declined to be led into a +profitless argument. + +"All I ask of you, my dear Jane," said she, "is to take care of mother a +little longer while I do what I consider my duty." + +She did not inform Cousin Jane that a certain freedom of movements was also +rendered desirable by what she considered her duty to Clem Sypher. Cousin +Jane lacked the finer threads of apprehension, and her comments might have +been crude. When Zora announced her intention to Sypher of leading a +migratory existence between London and Nunsmere for the sakes of Emmy and +himself, he burst into a panegyric on her angelic nature. Her presence +would irradiate these last dark days of disaster, for the time was quickly +approaching when the Bermondsey factory would be closed down, and Sypher's +Cure would fade away from the knowledge of men. + +"Have you thought of the future--of what you are going to do?" she asked. + +"No," said he, "but I have faith in my destiny." + +Zora felt this to be magnificent, but scarcely practical. + +"You'll be without resources?" + +"I never realized how full empty pockets could be," he declared. + +They were walking across the common, Sypher having lunched at "The Nook." +Presently they came across Septimus sitting by the pond. He rose and +greeted them. He wore an overcoat buttoned up to the throat and a cloth +cap. Zora's quick eyes noted an absence of detail in his attire. + +"Why, you're not dressed! Oh, you do want a wife to look after you." + +"I've only just got up," he explained, "and Wiggleswick wanted to do out my +bedroom, so I hadn't time to find my studs. I was thinking all night, you +see, and one can't think and sleep at the same time." + +"A new invention?" laughed Zora. + +"No. The old ones. I was trying to count them up. I've taken out about +fifty patents, and there are heaps of things half worked out which might be +valuable. Now I was thinking that if I made them all over to Sypher he +might get in some practical fellow to set them right, and start companies +and things to work them, and so make a lot of money." + +He took off his cap and ran his hand up his hair. "There's also the new +gun. I do wish you'd have that, too," he added, anxiously. "In fact, it +was our talk yesterday that put the other idea into my head." + +Sypher clapped him on the shoulder and called him his dear, generous +fellow. But how could he accept? + +"They're not all rot," said Septimus pleadingly. "There's a patent +corkscrew which works beautifully. Wiggleswick always uses it." + +Sypher laughed. "Well, I'll tell you what we can do. We can get a syndicate +together to run the Dix inventions, and pay you royalties on sales." + +"That seems a very good idea," said Zora judicially. + +But Septimus looked dissatisfied. "I wanted to give them to Sypher," said +he. + +Zora reminded him laughingly that he would have to provide for the future +member of Parliament's election expenses. The royalties would come in +handy. She could not take Septimus's inventions seriously. But Sypher spoke +of them later in his enthusiastic way. + +"Who knows? There may be things hidden among his models and specifications +of enormous commercial value. Lots of his inventions are crazy, but some +are bound to be practical. This field gun, for instance. The genius who +could have hit on that is capable of inventing anything. Why shouldn't I +devote my life to spreading the Dix inventions over the earth? It's a +colossal idea. Not one invention, but fifty--from a corkscrew to a machine +gun. It's better than Sypher's Cure, isn't it?" + +She glanced swiftly at him to see whether the last words were spoken in +bitterness. They were not. His face beamed as it had beamed in the days +when he had rhapsodied over the vision of an earth, one scab, to be healed +by Sypher's Cure. + +"Say you think it's better," he urged. + +"Yes. It's better," she assented. "But it's chimerical." + +"So are all the dreams ever dreamed by man. I shouldn't like to pass my +life without dreams, Zora. I could give up tobacco and alcohol and clean +collars and servants, and everything you could think of--but not dreams. +Without them the earth is just a sort of backyard of a place." + +"And with them?" said Zora. + +"An infinite garden." + +"I'm afraid you'll be disillusioned over poor Septimus," she said, "but I +shouldn't like you to take up anything you didn't believe in. What would be +quite honest in another man wouldn't be honest in you." + +"That means," said Sypher, "you wouldn't like to see me going on dealing in +quack medicines?" + +Zora flushed red. + +"It was at the back of my mind," she confessed. "But I did put my thoughts +into the form of a compliment." + +"Zora," said he, "if I fell below what I want to appear in your eyes, I +should lose the dearest dream of all." + +In the evening came Septimus to Penton Court to discuss the new scheme with +Sypher. Wiggleswick, with the fear of Zora heavy upon him, had laid out his +master's dinner suit, and Septimus had meekly put it on. He had also dined +in a Christian fashion, for the old villain could cook a plain dinner +creditably when he chose. Septimus proclaimed the regeneration of his body +servant as one of the innumerable debts he owed to Zora. + +"Why do you repay them to me?" asked Sypher. + +Then he rose, laughed into the distressed face, and put both his hands on +Septimus's shoulders. + +"No, don't try to answer. I know more about you than you can possibly +conceive, and to me you're transparency itself. But you see that I can't +accept your patents, don't you?" + +"I shall never do anything with them." + +"Have you tried?" + +"No." + +"Then I will. It will be a partnership between my business knowledge and +energy and your brains. That will be right and honorable for the two of +us." + +Septimus yielded. "If both you and Zora think so, it must be" he said. But +in his heart he was disappointed. + + * * * * * + +A few days afterwards Shuttleworth came into Sypher's office, with an +expression of cheerfulness on his dismal countenance. + +"Can I have a few moments with you, sir?" + +Sypher bade him be seated. Since his defection to the enemy, Shuttleworth +had avoided his chief as much as possible, the excess of sorrow over anger +in the latter's demeanor toward him being hard to bear. He had slunk about, +not daring to meet his eyes. This morning, however, he reeked of conscious +virtue. + +"I have a proposal to put before you, with which I think you'll be +pleased," said he. + + +"I'm glad to hear it," said Sypher. + +"I'm proud to say," continued Shuttleworth, "that it was my suggestion, and +that I've carried it through. I was anxious to show you that I wasn't +ungrateful for all your past kindnesses, and my leaving you was not as +disloyal as you may have thought." + +"I never accused you of disloyalty," said Sypher. "You had your wife and +children. You did the only thing possible." + +"You take a load off my mind," said Shuttleworth. + +He drew a long breath, as though relieved from an intolerable burden. + +"What is your proposal?" asked Sypher. + +"I am authorized by the Jebusa Jones Company to approach you with regard to +a most advantageous arrangement for both parties. It's your present +intention to close down the factory and shut up this office as soon as +things can be wound up." + +"That's my intention," said Sypher. + +"You'll come out of it solvent, with just a thousand pounds or so in your +pocket. The Cure will disappear from the face of the earth." + +"Quite so," said Sypher. He leaned back in his chair, and held an ivory +paper-knife in both hands. + +"But wouldn't that be an enormous pity?" said Shuttleworth. "The Cure is +known far and wide. Economically financed, and put, more or less, out of +reach of competition it can still be a most valuable property. Now, it +occurred to me that there was no reason why the Jebusa Jones Company could +not run Sypher's Cure side by side with the Cuticle Remedy. They agree with +me. They are willing to come to terms, whereby they will take over the +whole concern as it stands, with your name, of course, and advertisements +and trade-marks, and pay you a percentage of the profits." + +Sypher made no reply. The ivory paper-knife snapped, and he laid the pieces +absently on his desk. + +"The advantage to you is obvious," remarked Shuttleworth, who was beginning +to grow uneasy before the sphinx-like attitude of his chief. + +"Quite obvious," said Sypher. Then, after a pause: "Do they propose to ask +me to manage the Sypher Cure branch?" + +The irony was lost on Shuttleworth. + +"No--well--not exactly--" he stammered. + +Sypher laughed grimly, and checked further explanations. + +"That was a joke, Shuttleworth. Haven't you noticed that my jokes are +always rather subtle? No, of course you are to manage the Cure." + +"I know nothing about that, sir," said Shuttleworth hastily. + +Sypher rose and walked about the room, saying nothing, and his manager +followed him anxiously with his eyes. Presently he paused before the +cartoon of the famous poster. + +"This would be taken over with the rest?" + +"I suppose so. It's valuable--part of the good-will." + +"And the model of Edinburgh Castle--and the autograph testimonials, and the +'Clem Sypher. Friend of Humanity'?" + +"The model isn't much use. Of course, you could keep that as a curiosity--" + +"In the middle of my drawing-room table," said Sypher, ironically. + +Shuttleworth smiled, guessing that the remark was humorous. + +"Well," he said, "that's as you please. But the name and title naturally +are the essence of the matter." + +"I see," said Sypher. "'Clem Sypher, Friend of Humanity,' is the essence of +the matter." + +"With the secret recipe, of course." + +"Of course," said Sypher, absently. He paced the room once or twice, then +halted in front of Shuttleworth, looked at him fixedly for a second or two +out of his clear eyes and resumed his walk; which was disconcerting for +Shuttleworth, who wiped his spectacles. + +"Do you think we might now go into some details with regard to terms?" + +"No," said Sypher, stopping short of the fireplace, "I don't. I've got to +agree to the principle first." + +"But, surely, there's no difficulty about that!" cried Shuttleworth, rising +in consternation. "I can see no earthly reason--" + +"I don't suppose you can," said Sypher. "When do you want an answer?" + +"As soon as possible." + +"Come to me in an hour's time and I'll give it you." + +Shuttleworth retired. Sypher sat at his desk, his chin in his hand, and +struggled with his soul, which, as all the world knows, is the most +uncomfortable thing a man has to harbor in his bosom. After a few minutes +he rang up a number on the telephone. + +"Are you the Shaftesbury Club? Is Mr. Septimus Dix in?" + +He knew that Septimus was staying at the club, as he had come to town to +meet Emmy, who had arrived the evening before from Paris. + +Mr. Dix was in. He was just finishing breakfast, and would come to the +telephone. Sypher waited, with his ear to the receiver. + +"Is that you, Septimus? It's Clem Sypher speaking. I want you to come to +Moorgate Street at once. It's a matter of immediate urgency. Get into a +hansom and tell the man to drive like the devil. Thanks." + +He resumed his position and sat motionless until, about half an hour +later, Septimus, very much scared, was shown into the room. + +"I felt sure you were in. I felt sure you would come. There's a destiny +about all this business, and I seem to have a peep into it. I am going to +make myself the damnedest fool of all created beings--the very damnedest." + +Septimus murmured that he was sorry to hear it. + +"I hoped you might be glad," said Sypher. + +"It depends upon the kind of fool you're going to make of yourself," cried +Septimus, a ray of wonderful lucidity flashing across his mind. "There's a +couplet of Tennyson's--I don't read poetry, you know," he broke off +apologetically, "except a little Persian. I'm a hard, scientific person, +all machinery. My father used to throw poetry books into the fire if he +caught me with one, but my mother used to read to me now and then--oh, +yes!--Tennyson. It goes: '_They called me in the public squares, The fool +that wears a crown of thorn_.' That's the best kind of a fool to be." He +suddenly looked round. "Dear me; I've left my umbrella in the cab. That's +the worst kind of a fool to be." + +He smiled wanly, dropped his bowler hat on the floor, and eventually sat +down. + +"I want to tell you something," said Sypher, standing on the hearthrug with +his hands on his hips. "I've just had an offer from the Jebusa Jones +Company." + +Septimus listened intently while he told the story, wondering greatly why +he, of all unbusinesslike, unpractical people--in spite of his friendship +with Sypher--should be summoned so urgently to hear it. If he had suspected +that in reality he was playing the part of an animated conscience, he would +have shriveled up through fright and confusion. + +Said Sypher: "If I accept this offer I shall have a fair income for the +rest of my days. I can go where I like, and do what I like. Not a soul can +call my commercial honesty in question. No business man, in his senses, +would refuse it. If I decline, I start the world again with empty pockets. +What shall I do? Tell me." + +"I?" said Septimus, with his usual gesture of diffidence. "I'm such a silly +ass in such things." + +"Never mind," said Sypher. "I'll do just what you would do." + +Septimus reflected, and said, hesitatingly: + +"I think I should do what Zora would like. She doesn't mind empty pockets." + +Sypher dashed his hand across his forehead, and broke into a loud cry. + +"I knew you would say that. I brought you here to say it! Thank God! I love +her, Septimus. I love her with every fiber in me. If I had sold my name to +these people I should have sold my honor. I should have sold my birthright +for a mess of pottage. I couldn't have looked her in the face again. +Whether she will marry me or not has nothing to do with it. It would have +had nothing to do with it in your case. You would have been the best kind +of fool and so shall I." + +He swung about the room greatly excited, his ebullient nature finding in +words relief from past tension. He laughed aloud, proclaimed his love for +Zora, shook his somewhat bewildered friend by the hand, and informed him +that he, Septimus, alone of mortals, was responsible for the great +decision. And while Septimus wondered what the deuce he meant, he rang the +bell and summoned Shuttleworth. + +The dismal manager entered the room. On seeing Sypher's cheery face, his +own brightened. + +"I've thought the matter over, Shuttleworth." + +"And you've decided--" + +"To refuse the offer, absolutely." + +The manager gasped. "But, Mr. Sypher, have you reflected--" + +"My good Shuttleworth," said Sypher, "in all the years we've worked +together have you ever known me to say I've made up my mind when I +haven't?" + +Shuttleworth marched out of the room and banged the door, and went forth to +declare to the world his opinion of Clem Sypher. He had always been half +crazy; now he had gone stick, stark, staring, raving, biting mad. And those +to whom he told the tale agreed with him. + +But Sypher laughed his great laugh. + +"Poor Shuttleworth! He has worked hard to bring off this deal. I'm sorry +for him. But one can't serve God and Mammon." + +Septimus rose and took his hat. "I think it awfully wonderful of you," he +said. "I really do. I should like to talk to you about it--but I must go +and see Emmy. She came last night." + +Sypher inquired politely after her health, also that of her baby. + +"He's taking such a deuce of a time to grow up," said Septimus. "Otherwise +he's well. He's got a tooth. I've been wondering why no dentist has ever +invented a set of false teeth for babies." + +"Then your turn would come," laughed Sypher, "for you would have to invent +them a cast-iron inside." + +Before Septimus went, Sypher thrust a gold-headed umbrella into his hands. + +"It's pouring with rain, and you'll wade about and get wet through. I make +a rule never to lend umbrellas, so I give you this from a grateful heart. +God bless you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +The little flat in Chelsea, cleaned, swept and garnished by the wife of the +porter of the Mansions, received Emmy, her babe, Madame Bolivard and +multitudinous luggage. All the pretty fripperies and frivolities had been +freshened and refurbished since their desecration at alien hands, and the +place looked cheery and homelike; but Emmy found it surprisingly small, and +was amazed to discover the prodigious space taken up by the baby. When she +drew Septimus's attention to this phenomenon he accounted for it by saying +that it was because he had such a very big name, which was an excellent +thing in that it would enable him to occupy a great deal of room in the +universe when he grew up. + +She busied herself all the morning about the flat, happier than she had +been for a whole year. Her days of Hagardom were over. The menacing shadow +of the finger of scorn pointing at her from every airt of heaven had +disappeared. A clear sky welcomed her as she came back to take up an +acknowledged position in the world. The sense of release from an +intolerable ban outweighed the bitterness of old associations. She was at +home, in London, among dear familiar things and faces. She was almost +happy. + +When Madame Bolivard appeared with bonnet and basket undismayedly prepared +to market for lunch and dinner, she laughed like a schoolgirl, and made her +repeat the list of English words she had taught her in view of this +contingency. She could say "cabbage," "sugar," "lettuce," and ask for all +sorts of things. + +"But suppose you lose your way, Madame Bolivard?" + +"I shall find it, madame." + +"But how will you ask for directions? You know you can't say 'Ecclefechan +Mansions.'" + +Madame Bolivard made a hopeless, spluttering sound as if she were blowing +teeth out of her mouth, which in no wise resembled the name of the place +wherein she dwelt. But Madame Bolivard, as has been remarked, was a _brave +femme_; and _allons donc!_ this was the least of the difficulties she had +had to encounter during her life. Emmy bade her godspeed in her perils +among the greengrocers. + +She went blithely about her household tasks, and sang and cooed deliciously +to the child lying in its bassinette. Every now and then she looked at the +clock over the mantelpiece, wondering why Septimus had not come. Only in +the depths of her heart--depths which humans in their every-day life dare +not sound too frequently--did she confess how foolishly she longed for him. +He was late. With Emmy, Septimus never broke an appointment. To insure his +being at a certain place at a certain time to meet her he took the most +ingenious and complicated precautions. Before now he had dressed overnight +and gone to sleep in his clothes so as to be ready when the servant called +him in the morning. Emmy, knowing this, after the way of women began to +grow anxious. When, therefore, she opened the flat door to him she +upbraided him with considerable tenderness. + +"It was Clem Sypher," he explained, taking off his overcoat. "He sent for +me. He wanted me badly. Why, I don't know. At least I do half know, but the +other half I don't. He's a magnificent fellow." + +A little later, after Septimus had inspected her morning's work in the +flat, and the night's progress in the boy's tooth, and the pretty new +blouse which she had put on in his honor, and the rose in her bosom taken +from the bunch he had sent to greet her arrival in the flat the night +before, and after he had heard of the valorous adventure of Madame Bolivard +and of a message from Hegisippe Cruchot which she had forgotten to deliver +overnight, and of an announcement from Zora to the effect that she would +call at Ecclefechan Mansions soon after lunch, and of many things of +infinite importance, Emmy asked him what Clem Sypher had been doing, and +wherein lay the particular magnificence of character to which Septimus had +alluded. + +"He's awfully splendid," said Septimus. "He has given up a fortune for the +sake of an idea. He also gave me an umbrella and his blessing. Emmy"--he +looked at her in sudden alarm--"did I bring an umbrella with me?" + +"You did, dear, and you put it in the stand; but what you've done with the +blessing, I don't know." + +"I've got it in my heart," said he. "He's a tremendous chap." + +Emmy's curiosity was excited. She sat on the fender seat and bent forward, +her hands on her knees, in a pretty girlish attitude and fixed her +forget-me-not eyes on him. + +"Tell me all about it." + +He obeyed and expounded Sypher's quixotism in his roundabout fashion. He +concluded by showing her how it had been done for Zora's sake. + +Emmy made a little gesture of impatience. + +"Zora!" she exclaimed jealously. "It's always Zora. To see how you men go +on, one would think there was no other woman in the world. Every one does +crazy things for her, and she looks on calmly and never does a hand's turn +for anybody. Clem Sypher's a jolly sight too good for her." + +Septimus looked pained at the disparagement of his goddess. Emmy sprang to +her feet and put her finger-tips on his shoulders. + +"Forgive me, dear. Women are cats--I've often told you--and love to scratch +even those they're fond of. Sometimes the more they love them the harder +they scratch. But I won't scratch you any more. Indeed I won't." + +The sound of the latch-key was heard in the front door. + +"There's Madame Bolivard," she cried. "I must see what miracle of loaves +and fishes she has performed. Do mind baby till I come back." + +She danced out of the room, and Septimus sat on a straight-backed chair +beside the bassinette. The baby--he was a rather delicate child +considerably undergrown for his age, but a placid, uncomplaining little +mortal--looked at Septimus out of his blue and white china eyes and +contorted his india-rubber features into a muddle indicative of pleasure, +and Septimus smiled cordially at the baby. + +"William Octavius Oldrieve Dix," he murmured--an apostrophe which caused +the future statesman a paroxysm of amusement--"I am exceedingly glad to see +you. I hope you like London. We're great friends, aren't we? And when you +grow up, we're going to be greater. I don't want you to have anything to do +with machinery. It stops your heart beating and makes you cold and +unsympathetic and prevents women from loving you. You mustn't invent +things. That's why I am going to make you a Member of Parliament--a +Conservative member." + +William Octavius, who had been listening attentively, suddenly chuckled, +as if he had seen a joke. Septimus's gaze conveyed sedate reproof. + +"When you laugh you show such a deuce of a lot of gum--like Wiggleswick," +said he. + +The baby made no reply. The conversation languished. Septimus bent down to +examine the tooth, and the baby clutched a tiny fistful of upstanding hair +as a reaper clutches a handful of wheat. Septimus smiled and kissed the +little crinkled, bubbly lips and fell into a reverie. William Octavius went +fast asleep. + +When Emmy returned she caught an appealing glance from Septimus and rescued +him, a new Absalom. + +"You dear thing," she cried, "why didn't you do it yourself?" + +"I was afraid of waking him. It's dangerous to wake babies suddenly. No, it +isn't babies; it's somnambulists. But he may be one, you see, and as he +can't walk we can't tell. I wonder whether I could invent an apparatus for +preventing somnambulists from doing themselves damage." + +Emmy laughed. "You can invent nothing so wonderful as Madame Bolivard," she +cried gaily. "She is contemptuous of the dangers of English marketing. 'The +people understood me at once,' she said. She evidently has a poor opinion +of them." + +Septimus stayed to lunch, a pleasant meal which made them bless Hegisippe +Cruchot for introducing them to the aunt who could cook. So far did their +gratitude go that Septimus remarked that it would only be decent to add +"Hegisippe" to the baby's names. But Emmy observed that he should have +thought of that before; the boy had already been christened; it was too +late. They drank the Zouave's health instead in some fearful and wonderful +red wine which Madame Bolivard had procured from heaven knows what +purveyor of dangerous chemicals. They thought it excellent. + +"I wonder," said Emmy, "whether you know what this means to me." + +"It's home," replied Septimus, with an approving glance around the little +dining-room. "You must get me a flat just like this." + +"Close by?" + +"If it's too close I might come here too often." + +"Do you think that possible?" she said, with as much wistfulness as she +dare allow herself. "Besides, you have a right." + +Septimus explained that as a Master of Arts of the University of Cambridge +he had a right to play marbles on the Senate House steps, a privilege +denied by statute to persons _in statu pupillari_, but that he would be +locked up as a lunatic if he insisted on exercising it. + +After a pause Emmy looked at him, and said with sudden tragicality: + +"I'm not a horrible, hateful worry to you, Septimus?" + +"Lord, no," said Septimus. + +"You don't wish you had never set eyes on me?" + +"My dear girl!" said Septimus. + +"And you wouldn't rather go on living quietly at Nunsmere and not bother +about me any more? Do tell me the truth." + +Septimus's hand went to his hair. He was unversed in the ways of women. + +"I thought all that was settled long ago," he said. "I'm such a useless +creature. You give me something to think about, and the boy, and his +education, and his teeth. And he'll have whooping cough and measles and +breeches and things, and it will be frightfully interesting." + +Emmy, elbow on table and chin in hand, smiled at him with a touch of +audacity in her forget-me-not eyes. + +"I believe you're more interested in the boy than you are in me." + +Septimus reddened and stammered, unable, as usual, to express his feelings. +He kept to the question of interest. + +"It's so different," said he. "I look on the boy as a kind of invention." + +She persisted. "And what am I?" + +He had one of his luminous inspirations. + +"You," said he, "are a discovery." + +Emmy laughed. "I do believe you like me a little bit, after all." + +"You've got such beautiful finger-nails," said he. + +Madame Bolivard brought in the coffee. Septimus in the act of lifting the +cup from tray to table let it fall through his nervous fingers, and the +coffee streamed over the dainty table-cloth. Madame Bolivard appealed +fervently to the Deity, but Emmy smiled proudly as if the spilling of +coffee was a rare social accomplishment. + +Soon after this Septimus went to his club with orders to return for tea, +leaving Emmy to prepare for her meeting with Zora. He had offered to be +present at this first interview so as to give her his support, and +corroborate whatever statement as to his turpitudes she might care to make +in explanation of their decision to live apart. But Emmy preferred to fight +her battle single-handed. Alone he had saved the situation by his very +vagueness. In conjunction with herself there was no knowing what he might +do, for she had resolved to exonerate him from all blame and to attribute +to her own infirmities of disposition this calamitous result of their +marriage. + +Now that the hour of meeting approached she grew nervous. Unlike Zora, she +had not inherited her father's fearlessness and joy of battle. The touch of +adventurous spirit which she had received from him had been her undoing, as +it had led her into temptation which the gentle, weak character derived +from her mother had been powerless to resist. All her life she had been +afraid of Zora, subdued by her splendid vitality, humbled before her more +generous accomplishment. And now she was to fight for her honor and her +child's and at the same time for the tender chivalry of the odd, beloved +creature that was her husband. She armed herself with woman's weapons, and +put on a brave face, though her heart thumped like some devilish machine, +racking her mercilessly. + +The bell rang. She bent over the boy asleep in the bassinette and gave a +mother's touch or two to the tiny coverlet. She heard the flat door open +and Zora's rich voice inquire for Mrs. Dix. Then Zora, splendid, deep +bosomed, glowing with color, bringing with her a perfume of furs and +violets, sailed into the room and took her into her arms. Emmy felt fluffy +and insignificant. + +"How well you're looking, dear. I declare you are prettier than ever. +You've filled out. I didn't come the first thing this morning as I wanted +to, because I knew you would find everything topsy-turvy in the flat. +Septimus is a dear, but I haven't much faith in his domestic capabilities." + +"The flat was in perfect order," said Emmy. "Even that bunch of roses in a +jar." + +"Did he remember to put in the water?" + +Zora laughed, meaning to be kind and generous, to make it evident to Emmy +that she had not come as a violent partisan of Septimus, and to lay a +pleasant, familiar foundation for the discussion in prospect. But Emmy +resented the note of disparagement. + +"Of course he did," she said shortly. + +Zora flew to the bassinette and glowed womanlike over the baby. A beautiful +child, one to be proud of indeed. Why hadn't Emmy dear proclaimed his +uniqueness in the world of infants? From the references in her letters he +might have been the ordinary baby of every cradle. + +"Oh, you ought to be such a happy woman!" she cried, taking off her furs +and throwing them over the back of a chair. "Such a happy woman!" + +An involuntary sigh shook her. The first words had been intended to convey +a gentle reproof; nature had compelled the reiteration on her own account. + +"I'm happy enough," said Emmy. + +"I wish you could say that with more conviction, dear. 'Happy enough' +generally means 'pretty miserable.' Why should you be miserable?" + +"I'm not. I have more happiness than I deserve. I don't deserve much." + +Zora put her arm round her sister's waist. + +"Never mind, dear. We'll try to make you happier." + +Emmy submitted to the caress for a while and then freed herself gently. She +did not reply. Not all the trying of Zora and all the Ladies Bountiful of +Christendom could give her her heart's desire. Besides, Zora, with her +large air of smiling _dea ex machina_ was hopelessly out of tone with her +mood. She picked up the furs. + +"How lovely. They're new. Where did you get them?" + +The talk turned on ordinary topics. They had not met for a year, and they +spoke of trivial happenings. Emmy touched lightly on her life in Paris. +They exchanged information as to their respective journeys. Emmy had had a +good crossing the day before, but Madame Bolivard, who had faced the +hitherto unknown perils of the deep with unflinching courage, had been +dreadfully seasick. The boy had slept most of the time. Awake he had been +as good as gold. + +"He's the sweetest tempered child under the sun." + +"Like his father," said Zora, "who is both sweet tempered and a child." + +The words were a dagger in Emmy's heart. She turned away swiftly lest Zora +should see the pain in her eyes. The intensity of the agony had been +unforeseen. + +"I hope the little mite has a spice of the devil from our side of the +family," added Zora, "or it will go hard with him. That's what's wrong with +poor Septimus." + +Emmy turned with a flash. "There's nothing wrong with Septimus. I wouldn't +change him for any man in the world." + +Zora raised surprised eyebrows and made the obvious retort: + +"Then, my dear, why on earth don't you live with him?" + +Emmy shrugged her shoulders, and looked out of the window. There was a +block of flats over the way, and a young woman at a window immediately +opposite was also looking out. This irritated her. She resented being +stared at by a young woman in a flat. She left the window and sat on the +sofa. + +"Don't you think, Zora, you might let Septimus and myself arrange things as +we think best? I assure you we are quite capable of looking after +ourselves. We meet in the friendliest way possible, but we have decided to +occupy separate houses. It's a matter that concerns ourselves entirely." + +Zora was prepared for this attitude, which she had resolved not to +countenance. She had come, in all her bravery, to bring Emmy to her senses. +Emmy should be brought. She left the bassinette and sat down near her +sister and smiled indulgently. + +"My dearest child, if you were so-called 'advanced people' and held all +sorts of outrageous views, I might understand you. But you are two very +ordinary folk with no views at all. You never had any in your life, and if +Septimus had one he would be so terribly afraid of it that he would chain +it up. I'm quite certain you married without any idea save that of sticking +together. Now, why haven't you?" + +"I make Septimus miserable. I can't help it. Sooner than make him unhappy I +insist upon this arrangement. There!" + +"Then I think you are very wicked and heartless and selfish," said Zora. + +"I am," said Emmy defiantly. + +"Your duty is to make him happy. It would take so little to do that. You +ought to give him a comfortable home and teach him to realize his +responsibilities toward the child." + +Again the stab. Emmy's nerve began to give way. For the first time came the +wild notion of facing Zora with the whole disastrous story. She dismissed +it as crazy. + +"I tell you things can't be altered." + +"But why? I can't imagine you so monstrous. Give me your confidence, +darling." + +"There's nothing to give." + +"I'm sure I could put things right for you at once if I knew what was +wrong. If it's anything to do with Septimus," she added in her unwisdom and +with a charming proprietary smile, "why, I can make him do whatever I +like." + +"Even if we had quarreled," cried Emmy, losing control of her prudence, "do +you suppose I would let _you_ bring him back to me?" + +"But why not?" + +"Have you been so blind all this time as not to see?" + +Emmy knew her words were vain and dangerous, but the attitude of her +sister, calm and confident, assuming her air of gracious patronage, +irritated her beyond endurance. Zora's smile deepened into indulgent +laughter. + +"My dearest Emmy, you don't mean to say that it's jealousy of me? But it's +too ridiculous. Do you suppose I've ever thought of Septimus in that way?" + +"You've thought of him just as you used to think of the bob-tailed sheep +dog we had when we were children." + +"Well, dear, you were never jealous of my attachment to Bobbie or Bobbie's +devotion to me," said Zora, smilingly logical. "Come, dear, I knew there +was only some silly nonsense at the bottom of this. Look. I'll resign every +right I have in poor Septimus." + +Emmy rose. "If you call him 'poor Septimus' and speak of him in that tone, +you'll drive me mad. It's you that are wicked and heartless and selfish." + +"I?" cried Zora, aghast. + +"Yes, you. You accept the love and adoration of the noblest gentleman that +God ever put into the world, and you treat him and talk of him as if he +were a creature of no account. If you were worthy of being loved by him, I +shouldn't he jealous. But you're not. You've been so wrapped up in your own +magnificence that you've not even condescended to notice that he loved you. +And even now, when I tell you, you laugh, as if it were preposterous that +'poor Septimus' could ever dare to love you. You drive me mad." + +Zora drew herself up angrily. To make allowances for a silly girl's +jealousy was one thing; it was another to be accused in this vehement +fashion. Conscious of her innocence, she said: + +"Your attack on me is entirely unjustifiable, Emmy. I have done nothing." + +"That's why," retorted Emmy quickly. "You've done nothing. Men are +sacrificing their lives and fortunes for you, and you do nothing." + +"Lives and fortunes? What do you mean?" + +"I mean what I say," cried Emmy desperately. "Septimus has done everything +short of laying down his life for you, and that he would have done if +necessary, and you haven't even taken the trouble to see the soul in the +man that was capable of it. And now that something has happened which you +can't help seeing you come in your grand way to put it all to rights in a +minute. You think I've turned him out because he's a good-natured worry +like Bobbie, the bob-tailed sheep dog, and you say, 'Poor fellow, see how +pitifully he's wagging his tail. It's cruel of you not to let him in.' +That's the way you look at Septimus, and I can't stand it and I won't. I +love him as I never dreamed a woman could love a man. I could tear myself +into little pieces for him bit by bit. And I can't get him. He's as far +removed from me as the stars in heaven. You could never understand. I pray +every night to God to forgive me, and to work a miracle and bring him to +me. But miracles don't happen. He'll never come to me. He can't come to me. +While you have been patronizing him, patting him on the head, playing Lady +Bountiful to him--as you are doing to the other man who has given up a +fortune this very morning just because he loves you--while you've been +doing this and despising him--yes, you know you do in your heart, for a +simple, good-natured, half-witted creature who amuses himself with crazy +inventions, he has done a thing to save you from pain and shame and +sorrow--you, not me--because he loved you. And now I love him. I would give +all I have in life for the miracle to happen. But it can't. Don't you +understand? It can't!" + +She stood panting in front of Zora, a passionate woman obeying elemental +laws; and when passionate women obey elemental laws they are reckless in +speech and overwhelming in assertion and denunciation. Emmy was the first +whom Zora had encountered. She was bewildered by the storm of words, and +could only say, rather stupidly: + +"Why can't it?" + +Emmy thew two or three short breaths. The notion had come again. The +temptation was irresistible. Zora should know, having brought it on +herself. She opened the door. + +"Madame Bolivard!" she cried. And when the Frenchwoman appeared she pointed +to the bassinette. + +"Take baby into the bedroom. It will be better for him there." + +"_Bien, madame_," said Madame Bolivard, taking up the child. And when the +door had closed behind her Emmy pointed to it and said: + +"That's why." + +Zora started forward, horror stricken. + +"Emmy, what do you mean?" + +"I'll tell you. I couldn't with him in the room. I should always fancy that +he had heard me, and I want him to respect and love his mother." + +"Emmy!" cried Zora. "Emmy! What are you saying? Your son not respect +you--if he knew--do you mean...?" + +"Yes," said Emmy, "I do--Septimus went through the marriage ceremony with +me and gave us his name. That's why we are living apart. Now you know." + +"My God!" said Zora. + +"Do you remember the last night I was at Nunsmere?" + +"Yes. You fainted." + +"I had seen the announcement of the man's marriage in the newspaper." + +She told her story briefly and defiantly, asking for no sympathy, +proclaiming it all _ad majorem Septimi gloriam_. Zora sat looking at her +paralyzed with helplessness, like one who, having gone lightly forth to +shoot rabbits, suddenly comes upon a lion. + +"Why didn't you tell me--at the time--before?" + +"Did you ever encourage me to give you my confidence? You patted me on the +head, too, and never concerned yourself about my affairs. I was afraid of +you--deadly afraid of you. It sounds rather silly now, doesn't it? But I +was." + +Zora made no protest against the accusation. She sat quite still, her eyes +fixed on the foot of the bassinette, adjusting her soul to new and +startling conceptions. She said in a whisper: + +"My God, what a fool I've been!" + +The words lingered a haunting echo in her ears. They were mockingly +familiar. Where had she heard them recently? Suddenly she remembered. She +raised her head and glanced at Emmy in anything but a proud way. + +"You said something just now about Clem Sypher having sacrificed a fortune +for me. What was it? I had better hear everything." + +Emmy sat on the fender stool, as she had done when Septimus had told her +the story, and repeated it for Zora's benefit. + +"You say he sent for Septimus this morning?" said Zora in a low voice. "Do +you think he knows--about you two?" + +"It is possible that he guesses," replied Emmy, to whom Hegisippe Cruchot's +indiscretion had been reported. "Septimus has not told him." + +"I ask," said Zora, "because, since my return, he has seemed to look on +Septimus as a sort of inspired creature. I begin to see things I never saw +before." + +There was silence. Emmy gripped the mantelpiece and, head on arm, looked +into the fire. Zora sat lost in her expanding vision. Presently Emmy said +without turning round: + +"You mustn't turn away from me now--for Septimus's sake. He loves the boy +as if he were his own. Whatever wrong I've done I've suffered for it. Once +I was a frivolous, unbalanced, unprincipled little fool. I'm a woman +now--and a good woman, thanks to him. To live in the same atmosphere as +that exquisite delicacy of soul is enough to make one good. No other man on +earth could have done what he has done and in the way he has done it. I +can't help loving him. I can't help eating my heart out for him. That's my +punishment." + +This time the succeeding silence was broken by a half-checked sob. Emmy +started round, and beheld Zora crying silently to herself among the sofa +cushions. Emmy was amazed. Zora, the magnificent, had broken down, and was +weeping like any silly fool of a girl. It was real crying; not the shedding +of the tears of sensibility which often stood in her generous eyes. Emmy +moved gently across the room--she was a soft-hearted, affectionate +woman--and knelt by the sofa. + +"Zora, dear." + +Zora, with an immense longing for love, caught her sister in her arms, and +the two women wept very happily together. It was thus that Septimus, +returning for tea, as he was bidden, found them some while afterwards. + +Zora rose, her lashes still wet, and whipped up her furs. + +"But you're not going?" + +"Yes. I'll leave you two together. I'll do what I can. Septimus--" She +caught him by the arm and drew him a step or two towards the door. "Emmy +has told me everything. Oh, you needn't look frightened, dear. I'm not +going to thank you--" Her voice broke on the laugh. "I should only make a +fool of myself. Some other time. I only want to say, don't you think you +would be more--more cosy and comfortable if you let her take care of you +altogether? She's breaking her heart for love of you, Septimus, and she +would make you happy." + +She rushed out of the room, and before the pair could recover from their +confusion they heard the flat door slam behind her. + +Emmy looked at Septimus with a great scare in her blue eyes. She said +something about taking no notice of what Zora said. + +"But is it true?" he asked. + +She said with her back against the wall: + +"Do you think it very amazing that I should care for you?" + +Septimus ran his hands vehemently up his hair till it reached the climax of +Struwel Peterdom. The most wonderful thing in his life had happened. A +woman loved him. It upset all his preconceived notions of his place in the +universe. + +"Yes, I do," he answered. "It makes my head spin round." He found himself +close to her. "Do you mean that you love me"--his voice grew tremulous--"as +if I were an ordinary man?" + +"No," she cried, with a half laugh. "Of course I don't. How could I love an +ordinary man as I love you?" + +Neither could tell afterwards how it happened. Emmy called the walls to +witness that she did not throw herself into his arms, and Septimus's +natural timidity precluded the possibility of his having seized her in his; +but she stood for a long, throbbing time in his embrace, while he kissed +her on the lips and gave all his heart into her keeping. + +They sat down together on the fender seat. + +"When a man does that," said Septimus, as if struck by a luminous idea, "I +suppose he asks the girl to marry him." + +"But we are married already," she cried joyously. + +"Dear me," said Septimus, "so we are. I forgot. It's very puzzling, isn't +it? I think, if you don't mind, I'll kiss you again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +Zora went straight back to her hotel sitting-room. There, without taking +off her hat or furs, she wrote a swift, long letter to Clem Sypher, and +summoning the waiter, ordered him to post it at once. When he had gone she +reflected for a few moments and sent off a telegram. After a further brief +period of reflection she went down-stairs and rang up Sypher's office on +the telephone. + +The mere man would have tried the telephone first, then sent the telegram, +and after that the explanatory letter. Woman has her own way of doing +things. + +Sypher was in. He would have finished for the day in about twenty minutes. +Then he would come to her on the nearest approach to wings London +locomotion provided. + +"Remember, it's something most particular that I want to see you about," +said Zora. "Good-by." + +She rang off, and went up-stairs again, removed the traces of tears from +her face and changed her dress. For a few moments she regarded her outward +semblance somewhat anxiously in the glass, unconscious of a new coquetry. +Then she sat down before the sitting-room fire and looked at the inner Zora +Middlemist. + +There was never woman, since the world began, more cast down from her high +estate. Not a shred of magnificence remained. She saw herself as the most +useless, vaporing and purblind of mortals. She had gone forth from the +despised Nunsmere, where nothing ever happened, to travel the world over in +search of realities, and had returned to find that Nunsmere had all the +time been the center of the realities that most deeply concerned her life. +While she had been talking others had been living. The three beings whom +she had honored with her royal and somewhat condescending affection had all +done great things, passed through flames and issued thence purified with +love in their hearts. Emmy, Septimus, Sypher, all in their respective ways, +had grappled with essentials. She alone had done nothing--she the strong, +the sane, the capable, the magnificent. She had been a tinsel failure. So +far out of touch had she been with the real warm things of life which +mattered that she had not even gained her sister's confidence. Had she done +so from her girlhood up, the miserable tragedy might not have happened. She +had failed in a sister's elementary duty. + +As a six weeks' wife, what had she done save shiver with a splendid +disgust? Another woman would have fought and perhaps have conquered. She +had made no attempt, and the poor wretch dead, she had trumpeted abroad her +crude opinion of the sex to which he belonged. At every turn she had seen +it refuted. For many months she had known it to be vain and false; and +Nature, who with all her faults is at least not a liar, had spoken over and +over again. She had raised a fine storm of argument, but Nature had +laughed. So had the Literary Man from London. She had a salutary vision of +herself as the common geck and gull of the queerly assorted pair. She +recognized that in order to work out any problem of life one must accept +life's postulates and axioms. Even her mother, from whose gentle lips she +rarely expected to hear wisdom, had said: "I don't see how you're going to +'live,' dear, without a man to take care of you." Her mother was right, +Nature was right, Rattenden was right. She, Zora Middlemist, had been +hopelessly wrong. + + * * * * * + +When Sypher arrived she welcomed him with an unaccustomed heart-beat. The +masterful grip of his hands as they held hers gave her a new throb of +pleasure. She glanced into his eyes and saw there the steady love of a +strong, clean soul. She glanced away and hung her head, feeling unworthy. + +"What's this most particular thing you have to say to me?" he asked, with a +smile. + +"I can't tell it to you like this. Let us sit down. Draw up that chair to +the fire." + +When they were seated, she said: + +"I want first to ask you a question or two. Do you know why Septimus +married my sister? Be quite frank, for I know everything." + +"Yes," he said gravely, "I knew. I found it out in one or two odd ways. +Septimus hasn't the faintest idea." + +Zora picked up an illustrated weekly from the floor and used it as a +screen, ostensibly from the fire, really from Sypher. + +"Why did you refuse the Jebusa Jones offer this morning?" + +"What would you have thought of me if I had accepted? But Septimus +shouldn't have told you." + +"He didn't. He told Emmy, who told me. You did it for my sake?" + +"Everything I do is for your sake. You know that well enough." + +"Why did you send for Septimus?" + +"Why are you putting me through this interrogatory?" he laughed. + +"You will learn soon," said Zora. "I want to get everything clear in my +mind. I've had a great shock. I feel as if I had been beaten all over. For +the first time I recognize the truth of the proverb about a woman, a dog, +and a walnut tree. Why did you send for Septimus?" + +Sypher leaned back in his chair, and as the illustrated paper prevented him +from seeing Zora's face, he looked reflectively at the fire. + +"I've always told you that I am superstitious. Septimus seems to be gifted +with an unconscious sense of right in an infinitely higher degree than any +man I have ever known. His dealings with Emmy showed it. His sending for +you to help me showed it. He has shown it in a thousand ways. If it hadn't +been for him and his influence on my mind I don't think I should have come +to that decision. When I had come to it, I just wanted him. Why, I can't +tell you." + +"I suppose you knew that he was in love with me?" said Zora in the same +even tone. + +"Yes," said Sypher. "That's why he married your sister." + +"Do you know why--in the depths of his heart--he sent me the tail of the +little dog?" + +"He knew somehow that it was right. I believe it was. I tell you I'm +superstitious. But in what absolute way it was right I can't imagine." + +"I can," said Zora. "He knew that my place was by your side. He knew that I +cared for you more than for any man alive." She paused. Then she said +deliberately: "He knew that I loved you all the time." + +Sypher plucked the illustrated paper from her hand and cast it across the +room, and, bending over the arm of his chair, seized her wrist. + +"Zora, do you mean that?" + +She nodded, fluttered a glance at him, and put out her free hand to claim a +few moments' grace. + +"I left you to look for a mission in life. I've come back and found it at +the place I started from. It's a big mission, for it means being a mate to +a big man. But if you will let me try, I'll do my best." + +Sypher thrust away the protecting hand. + +"You can talk afterwards," he said. + +Thus did Zora come to the knowledge of things real. When the gates were +opened, she walked in with a tread not wanting in magnificence. She made +the great surrender, which is woman's greatest victory, very proudly, very +humbly, very deliciously. She had her greatnesses. + +She freed herself, flushed and trembling, throbbing with a strange +happiness that caught her breath. This time she believed Nature, and +laughed with her in her heart in close companionship. She was mere woman +after all, with no mission in life but the accomplishment of her womanhood, +and she gloried in the knowledge. This was exceedingly good for her. Sypher +regarded her with shining eyes as if she had been an immortal vesting +herself in human clay for divine love of him; and this was exceedingly good +for Sypher. After much hyperbole they descended to kindly commonplace. + +"But I don't see now," he cried, "how I can ask you to marry me. I don't +even know how I'm to earn my living." + +"There are Septimus's inventions. Have you lost your faith in them?" + +He cried with sudden enthusiasm, as who should say, if an Immortal has +faith in them, then indeed must they be divine: + +"Do you believe in them now?" + +"Utterly. I've grown superstitious, too. Wherever we turn there is +Septimus. He has raised Emmy from hell to heaven. He has brought us two +together. He is our guardian angel. He'll never fail us. Oh, Clem, thank +heaven," she exclaimed fervently, "I've got something to believe in at +last." + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile the guardian angel, entirely unconscious of apotheosis, sat in +the little flat in Chelsea blissfully eating crumpets over which Emmy had +spread the preposterous amount of butter which proceeds from an overflowing +heart. She knelt on the hearth rug watching him adoringly as if he were a +hierophant eating sacramental wafer. They talked of the future. He +mentioned the nice houses he had seen in Berkeley Square. + +"Berkeley Square would be very charming," said Emmy, "but it would mean +carriages and motor-cars and powdered footmen and Ascot and balls and +dinner parties and presentations at Court. You would be just in your +element, wouldn't you, dear?" + +She laughed and laid her happy head on his knee. + +"No, dear. If we want to have a fling together, you and I, in London, let +us keep on this flat as a _pied-a-terre_. But let us live at Nunsmere. The +house is quite big enough, and if it isn't you can always add on a bit at +the cost of a month's rent in Berkeley Square. Wouldn't you prefer to live +at Nunsmere?" + +"You and the boy and my workshop are all I want in the world," said he. + +"And not Wiggleswick?" + +One of his rare smiles passed across his face. + +"I think Wiggleswick will be upset." + +Emmy laughed again. "What a funny household it will be--Wiggleswick and +Madame Bolivard! It will be lovely!" + +Septimus reflected for an anxious moment. "Do you know, dear," he said +diffidently, "I've dreamed of something all my life--I mean ever since I +left home. It has always seemed somehow beyond my reach. I wonder whether +it can come true now. So many wonderful things have happened to me that +perhaps this, too--" + +"What is it, dear?" she asked, very softly. + +"I seem to be so marked off from other men; but I've dreamed all my life of +having in my house a neat, proper, real parlor maid in a pretty white cap +and apron. Do you think it can be managed?" + +With her head on his knee she said in a queer voice: + +"Yes, I think it can." + +He touched her cheek and suddenly drew his hand away. + +"Why, you're crying! What a selfish brute I am! Of course we won't have her +if she would be in your way." + +Emmy lifted her face to him. + +"Oh, you dear, beautiful, silly Septimus," she said, "don't you understand? +Isn't it just like you? You give every one else the earth, and in return +you ask for a parlor maid." + +"Well, you see," he said in a tone of distressed apology, "she would come +in so handy. I could teach her to mind the guns." + +"You dear!" cried Emmy. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Septimus, by William J. 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