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 practic