ry, 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
t