"I'm going up to dress for dinner," said Zora.

She was just a little indignant. Only into Emmy's fluffy head could so
preposterous an idea have entered. Clem Sypher in love with her? If so, why
not Septimus Dix? The thing thus reduced itself to an absurdity. She
laughed to herself, half ashamed of having allowed Emmy to see that she
took her child's foolishness seriously, and came down to dinner serene and
indulgent.




CHAPTER VII


"Are you going to have your bath first, or your breakfast?" asked
Wiggleswick, putting his untidy gray head inside the sitting-room door.

Septimus ran his ivory rule nervously through his hair.

"I don't know. Which would you advise?"

"What?" bawled Wiggleswick.

Septimus repeated his remark in a louder voice.

"If I had to wash myself in cold water," said Wiggleswick contemptuously,
"I'd do it on an empty stomach."