but I was prevented." He turned to Zora.

"I've met you too, on Vesuvius in January. You were with two elderly
ladies. You were dreadfully sunburnt. I made their acquaintance next day in
Naples. You had gone, but they told me your name. Let me see. I know
everybody and never forget anything. My mind is pigeon-holed like my
office. Don't tell me."

He held up his forefinger and fixed her with his eye.

"It's Middlemist," he cried triumphantly, "and you've an Oriental kind of
Christian name--Zora! Am I right?"

"Perfectly," she laughed, the uncanniness of his memory mitigating the
unconventionality of his demeanor.

"Now we all know one another," he said, swinging a chair round and sitting
unasked at the table. "You're both very sunburnt and the water here is hard
and will make the skin peel. You had better use some of the cure. I use it
myself every day--see the results."

He passed his hand over his smooth, clean-shaven face, which indeed was as
rosy as a baby's. His piercing eyes contrasted oddly with his chubby, full
lips and rounded chin.

"What cure?" asked Zora, politely.

"What cure?" he echoed, taken aback, "why, my cure. What other cure is
there?"

He turned to Septimus, who stared at him vacantly. Then the incredible
truth began to dawn on him.

"I am Clem Sypher--Friend of Humanity--Sypher's Cure. Now do you know?"

"I'm afraid I'm shockingly ignorant," said Zora.

"So am I," said Septimus.

"Good heavens!" cried Sypher, bringing both hands down on the table,
tragically. "Don't you ever read your advertisements?"

"I'm afraid not," said Zora.

"No," said Septimus.

Before his look of mingled amazement and reproach they felt like
Sunday-school children taken to task for having skipped the Kings of
Israel.

"Well," said Sypher, "this is the reward we get for spending millions of
pounds and the shrewdest brains in the country for the benefit of the
public! Have you ever considered what anxious thought, what consummate
knowledge of human nature, what dearly bought experience go to the making
of an advertisement? You'll go miles out of your way to see a picture or a
piece of sculpture that hasn't cost a man half the trouble and money to
produce, and you'll not look at an advertisement of a thing vital to your
life, though it is put before your eyes a dozen times a day. Here's my
card, and here are some leaflets for you to read at your leisure. They will
repay perusal."

He drew an enormous p