Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-28
Septinnc1s
By WILLIAM J.LOCKE
Copyright. 1908. By the Phillips Publish
ing Company
Copyright, 1907. BY John Lane Company
CHAPTER XII.-Continued.

SeptlmuSs UNCONSCIOUS OI IulS IoIluIuaA a
in their curious welded life, passed tran
quill though muddied days in his room at
the Hotel Godet. CLEAN of sunlight on
the glazed hat of an omnibus driver, the
stick Of the whip and the horses ear, as
he was coming home one day on the inn
periale, put him on the track of new
sighting apparatus for field gun which
he had half invented some years before.
The working out of this, and the superin-
tendence of the making of the model at
some works near Vincennes. occupied
much of his time and thought. In mat
tiers 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 1nstinct1veiy
and surely as a buffalo heads for water.
Many of his books and papers had been
sent him from time to time by Wiggles-
wick, who began to dread the post, the
labor of searching and packing and dis
patching becoming too severe tax on
the old villains 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-yester-
days Petit Journal. The femme de
chambre and the dirty. indetermipate
man In a green baize apron who went
about raising casual dust with great
feather broom. at first slowed the litter
away daily. with jackdaw ingenuity OF
concealment, until Septimus gave them
five francs each to desist: Whereup0n
they desisted with alacrity. and the books
became the stepping stones aforesaid,
IN hirho
only concern was the impossibility OF re-
packing them when the time should come
for him to leave the Hotel Godet and
sometimes the more academic speculation
as to what Fora would say should some
miracle of deviation transport her to the
untidy chamber. He could see her. radi-
ant and commanding. dispelling chaos
with the sweep Of her parasol.
There were few moments in the day
when he did not crave her presence. 1t
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
I'm a sort of way" to which she had con-
feSsed. The goddess was angry at the
slight cast on her by his secret marriage.
And she was in California. myriad OF
miles away. She could not have been
more remote had she been in Saturn.
w hen Emmy asked MIN whether lie Olu
not long for Wiggleswick and the studious
calm of Nunsmere he said. NO" And
he spoke truly: for wherein lay the ad-
vantage Of one spot on the earths sur
face over another. If Fora were not the
light thereof? But he kept his reason In
his heart. They rarely spoke of Fora.
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 be-
tween them Mordaunt Prince might have
been the figure Of a dream that had van
ished into the impenetrable mists OF
dreamland. To the girl he was & CHASTITY
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 q tattered volume
Of George Eliot, which sheehad picked