Septimus

d, 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

be 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

ave her smelling salts. Septimus anxiously desired to be assured that she was not dying, and

inted," she sai

a, kneeling by her si

ra at something uns

er's burning board." She turned an appealing g

relieved and closed her eyes. As soon as she had revived sufficiently she allowed herself t

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

marriage of Mordaunt Prince at

len 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 tu

ce. 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 h

e 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 walk

ly 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 h

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 h

are

red, taking hold of his cap.

way. How dare

re just discernible in the dim starlight. An

dare

y recognized you a couple of minutes ago. I was walk

e said,

nervously in his fingers while the breeze played through his upstanding hair. "

mus did not know that beneath the fur-li

rself," sa

lly. "In three feet of water? How do

had not thought of the

over," he remarked in perfect seriousness. "I once heard

lking on, waved him away; but h

"Leave me alone, for God's sake. I'm not going to

ing to do that, why o

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 ar

even-mile wal

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 Lon

silence, crossed the common

g my company upon you, and yet I feel I should be doing wrong to

," she replied quickly. "Perhaps you had bet

d ease m

don't chatter. I don't want you

said Septimus, "and you h

hick 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.

s 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 beco

e," she moaned, and roc

ght 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.

a glass of milk. Or a cup of tea," he added, brightening with the glow

o her. Neither poppy nor mandragora (or words to that effect) could give her eas

at I can do," said Se

resently they made out a cart coming slowly dow

o that and take you

her feet and c

night they nearly drove me into hysterics. What do you suppose I came out for at this hour,

Septimus, "I c

in his, and almost laughed,

e a beast. Anyone but you would have worried me with qu

at 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 tea

, I should love it for your

rest in the cottage, I could send

ch the train

ce waited by a cottage door for the driver who stood swallowing his final cup of te

re," said Septimus, with the air of a man who has arr

ng the cabbages, with some sacks for rugs, and there she lay drowsy

il, numb with cold, and too woebegone to think of her hair, which straggled limply from beneath the zibeline toque. Septimu

with me? It i

sible for y

lousy shot thr

ys think

Septimus, vaguely allusiv

r own sex, and she had also a sisterly knowledge of Zora unharmonious with Septimu

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

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 Ra

o do when you get to

o back to Nunsmere, I suppose, by

ou," said Emmy abse

ached Victoria. There, a dejected four-wheeled cab with a drooping horse s

or. I know I'm a beast, Septimus dea

h, with the clearness of yellow consommé, but ahead it stood thick, like a purée 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

ld. Her pretty mouth was never strong, but when the cor

f me. Every bit of it has been worse than the last. Edith-that's my maid-will light a fire-you

imus, who for all his vagueness had definit

astly world matter? I'm frightened, Septimus, horri

and telling the cabman to wait, followed her through the already opened front door of the Mansions up to her flat. S

n we can have some breakfast. The fire's

n, it blazed fiercely. He spread his ice-cold hands out before it, incurious of the futile little room whose draperies and fripperies and inconside

was white and there were dark shadows under the eyes whi

ested, as if London serving-maids were in the habit

d staked all her hopes of physical comfort, was not there. Overstrained in body, nerves, and mind, she sank helplessly in th

ith 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 sudde

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

hen suddenly it burst like a skyrocket and a blinding rain of

ues 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

what am

rty 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

in a matter-of-fact tone. "D

t it, realized that It was Clem Sy

thrusting it into h

working brain foc

n do," said he. "W

she asked, treating the pre

directness, and passed his

know,"

someone else's-"is to get away from here. Zora will be down by the first train af

el. A Temperance Hotel in Bloomsbury. Wiggleswick was telling me about one the

s the name o

t me see. Lockhart-no, Lockhart's is a different place. It was either the Bride of La

of paper had braced her unstrung nerves for a f

re. I'll just put s

her to pass out. On t

t you to Nunsmere

off 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-"

d 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 sen

; and the little empty drawing-room with all its vanities looked somewhat ghostly, lit as it wa