Septimus had never seen a woman faint before.

At first he thought Emmy was dead, and rubbed agonized hands together like a fly.

When he realized what had happened, he produced a large jack-knife which he always carried in his trousers pocket--for the purpose, he explained, of sharpening pencils--and offered it to Zora with the vague idea that the first aid to fainting women consisted in cutting their stay-laces.

Zora rebuked him for futility, and bade him ring the bell for the maid.
It was all very sudden.

The scene had been one that of late had grown so familiar: Zora and Septimus poring over world itineraries, the latter full of ineffectual suggestion and irrelevant reminiscence, and Emmy reading by the fire.