rtuously,
as became her station.

Zora found him humbly awaiting her on the platform in company with Clem
Sypher, who presented her with a great bunch of roses and a bundle of
illustrated papers. Septimus had received as a parting guerdon an enormous
package of the cure, which he embraced somewhat dejectedly. It was Sypher
who looked after the luggage of the party. His terrific accent filled the
station. Septimus regarded him with envy. He wondered how a man dared
order foreign railway officials about like that.

"If I tried to do it they would lock me up. I once interfered in a street
row."

Zora did not hear the dire results of the interference. Sypher claimed her
attention until the train was on the point of starting.

"Your address in England? You haven't given it."

"The Nook, Nunsmere, Surrey, will always find me."

"Nunsmere?" He paused, pencil in hand, and looked up at her as she stood
framed in the railway carriage window. "I nearly bought a house there last
year. I was looking out for one with a lawn reaching down to a main railway
track. This one had it."

"Penton Court?"

"Yes. That was the name."

"It's still unsold," laughed Zora idly.

"I'll buy it at once," said he.

_"En voiture_," cried the guard.

Sypher put out his masterful hand.

"Au revoir. Remember. We are friends. I never say what I don't mean."

The train moved out of the station. Zora took her seat opposite Septimus.

"I really believe he'll do it," she said.

"What?"

"Oh, something crazy," said Zora. "Tell me about the street row."

* * * * *

In Paris Zora was caught in the arms of the normal and the uneventful. An
American family consisting of a father, mother, son and two daughters
touring the continent do not generate an atmosphere of adventure. Their
name was Callender, they were wealthy, and the track beaten by the golden
feet of their predecessors was good enough for them. They were generous and
kindly. There was no subtle complexity in their tastes. They liked the
best, they paid for it, and they got it. The women were charming,
cultivated and eager for new sensations. They found Zora a new sensation,
because she had that range of half tones which is the heritage of a child
of an older, grayer civilization. Father and son delighted in her. Most men
did. Besides, she relieved the family tedium. The family knew the Paris of
the rich Anglo-Saxon and other rich Anglo-Saxons in Paris.