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 G.o.d 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.
G.o.d 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 mult.i.tudinous 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 s.p.a.ce 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 a.s.sociations. 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 G.o.dspeed in her perils among the greengrocers.
She went blithely about her household tasks, and sang and cooed deliciously to the child lying in its ba.s.sinette. 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 att.i.tude 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 G.o.ddess. 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 ba.s.sinette. 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 amus.e.m.e.nt--"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 grat.i.tude 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."