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." "But if the water were warm ?" "Well, the water ain't warm, so it's no good speculating." "Dear me," said Septimus.

"Now that's just what I enjoy doing." Wiggleswick grunted.

"I'll turn on the tap and leave it." The door having closed behind his body servant, Septimus laid his ivory rule on the portion of the complicated diagram of machinery which he had been measuring off, and soon became absorbed in his task.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon.