him with bewildering clearness; but this time more radiant, more intense
than he had ever known before; it was almost an ecstasy. He passed both
hands feverishly through his hair till it could stand no higher.

"I have it!" he cried; and Archimedes could not have uttered his famous
word with a greater thrill.

"Emmy, I have it!"

He stood before her gibbering with inspiration. At his cry she raised a
tear-stained face and regarded him amazedly.

"You have what?"

"The solution. It is so simple, so easy. Why shouldn't we have run away
together?"

"We did," said Emmy.

"But really--to get married."

"Married?"

She started bolt upright on the sofa, the feminine ever on the defensive.

"Yes," said Septimus quickly. "Don't you see? If you will go through the
form of marriage with me--oh, just the form, you know--and we both
disappear abroad somewhere for a year--I in one place and you in another,
if you like--then we can come back to Zora, nominally married, and--and--"