emembered how this bit of unauthenticated history was greeted
with derision by the general, and with a shocked sense of propriety by the
cultivated--and young men at the university can be very cultivated indeed
on occasion. But the truth the great preacher intended to convey had
lingered 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 sent him to Nunsmere Common and destined him to be the mean instrument
of Emmy's deliverance? He rubbed the warm pipe bowl against his cheek and
excogitated the matter in deep humility. Yes, perhaps God had sent him. His
religious belief was nebulous, but up to its degree of clarity it was
sincere.

A few minutes later they were again in the cab jogging wearily across
London to Southampton Row; and the little empty drawing-room with all its
vanities looked somewhat ghostly, lit as it was by the day and by the
frivolously shaded electric light which they had forgotten to switch off.

CHAPTER X

When Septimus had seen Emmy admitted to the Ravenswood Hotel, he stood on
the gloomy pavement outside wondering what he should do. Then it occurred
to him that he belonged to a club--a grave, decorous place where the gay
pop of a champagne cork had been known to produce a scandalized silence in
the luncheon-room, and where serious-minded members congregated to scowl at
one another's unworthiness from behind newspapers. A hansom conveyed him
thither. In the hall he struggled over two telegrams which had caused him
most complicated thought during his drive. The problem was to ease Zora's
mind and to obtain a change of raiment without disclosing the whereabouts
of either Emmy or himself. This he had found no easy matter, diplomacy
being the art of speaking the truth with intent to deceive, and so finely
separated from sheer lying as to cause grave distress to Septimus's candid
soul. At last, after much wasting of telegraph forms, he decided on the
following:

To Zora: "Emmy safe in London. So am I. Don't worry. Devotedly, Septimus."

To Wiggleswick: "Bring clothes and railway carriage diagrams secretly to
Club."

Having dispatched these, he went into the coffee-room and ordered
breakfast. The waiters served him in horrified silence. A gaunt member,
br