"I wish I could do something for you," he said, heedless of her taunts,
during a moment when they were out of earshot of the others. He had already
offered to go to Naples and bring back Mordaunt Prince, and had received
instant orders not to be a fool. "I wish I could make you laugh again."

"I don't want to laugh," she replied impatiently. "I want to sit on the
floor and howl."

They happened to be in the hall. At the farther end Septimus caught sight
of a fluffy Persian kitten playing with a bit of paper, and guided by one
of his queer intuitions he went and picked it up and laid its baby softness
against the girl's cheek. Her mood changed magically.

"Oh, the darling!" she cried, and kissed its tiny, wet nose.

She was quite polite to Sypher during luncheon, and laughed when he told
her that he called the kitten Jebusa Jones. She asked why.

"Because," said he, showing his hand covered with scratches, "she produces
on the human epidermis the same effect as his poisonous cuticle remedy."

Whereupon Emmy decided that the man who could let a kitten scratch his hand
in that fashion had elements of good in his nature.

"Now for the surprise," said Sypher, when Septimus and he joined the ladies
after lunch. "Come."

They followed him outside, through the French windows of the drawing-room.
"Other people," said he, "want houses with lawns reaching down to the side