Zora's eyes filled with tears. She saw that her lack of appreciation had hurt him to the heart. She was a generous woman, and did not convict him, as she would have done another man, of blatant vulgarity. Yet she felt preposterously pained. Why could not this great, single-minded creature, with ideas as high as they were queer, perceive the board's rank abomination? "It's unworthy of you," she said bravely. "I want everyone to respect you as I do. You see the Cure isn't everything. There's a man behind it." "That's the object of the board," said Sypher. "To show the man." "But it doesn't show the chivalrous gentleman that I think you are," she replied quickly. "It gives the impression of some one quite different--a horrid creature who would sell his self-respect for money. Oh, don't you understand? It's as bad as walking through the streets with 'Sypher's Cure' painted on your hat." "What can I do about it?" he asked. "Take it down at once," said Zora. "But to exhibit the board was my sole reason for buying the place." "I'm very sorry," she said gently, "but I can't change my opinion." He cast a lingering glance at the board, and then turned. "Let us go back to the house," he said. They walked a little way in silence. As they passed by the shrubbery at the side of the house, he gravely pushed aside a wet, hanging branch for her to proceed dry. Then he joined her again. "You are angry with me for speaking so," said Zora. He stopped and looked at her, his eyes bright and clear. "Do you think I'm a born fool? Do you think I can't tell loyalty when I see it, and am such an ass as not to prize it above all things? It cost you a lot to say that to me. You're right. I suppose I've lost sense of myself in the Cure. When I think of it, I seem just to be the machine that is distributing it over the earth. And that, too, I suppose, is why I want you. The board is an abomination that cries to heaven. It shall be instantly removed. There!" He held out his hand. She gave him hers and he pressed it warmly. "Are you going to give up the house now that it's useless?" she asked. "Do you wish me to?" "What have I to do with it?" "Zora Middlemist," said he, "I'm a superstitious man in some things. You have everything to do with my success. Sooner than forfeit your respect I would set fire to every stick I possessed. I would give up everything I had in the world except my faith in the Cure."