_Mrs. Campbell:_ "Then I wish, the next time, he'd give _you_ some charges, my dear. But come, now, do! We shall be rather late, anyway, and that simpleton will be perfectly furious." _Mrs. Roberts:_ "Yes, that's just what I was saying to Edward. She'll never forgive you. If it was anybody else, I shouldn't think of dragging him out to-night." _Mrs. Campbell:_ "The worst of a bore like her is that she's sure to come to all _your_ things, and you can't get off from _one_ of hers. Willis declares he's going to strike, and I couldn't have got him out to-night if I hadn't told him you were going to make Edward go." _Mrs. Roberts:_ "Oh, isn't it perfectly wicked, Amy! I know he's just going to have the grippe. See how drowsy he is! That's one of the first symptoms." _Mrs. Campbell:_ "It's one of the symptoms of having passed the night on a sleeping-car, too." _Mrs. Roberts:_ "That's true, and thank you, Amy. I forgot all about that. But now, Edward, dear, you _will_ remember, won't you? If I could only stay with you----" _Roberts_, who has been drowsily drooping in his chair during the exchange of these ideas between the ladies: "Oh, I'm all right, Agnes. Or--ow, ugh, ow!--I should be if I had a cup of tea." _Mrs. Roberts:_ "There! I _knew_ it. If I had been worth anything at all as a wife I should have had you a cup of tea long ago. Oh, how heartless! And I've let both the girls go, and the fire's all out in the range, anyway. But I'll go and start it with my own hands--" _Mrs. Campbell:_ "In those gloves! You're crazy, Agnes! Edward, I'll tell you what Willis does, when he's out of sorts a little: he takes a taste of whiskey-and-water. He says nothing freshens him up like it." _Roberts_: "That's a good idea." _Mrs. Roberts_, bustling into the dining-room and reappearing with a tumbler and a decanter: "The very thing, Amy! And thank you _so_ much. Trying to make Edward remember seems to put everything out of my head! I might have thought of _whiskey_, though! If it's only loss of sleep, it will wake him up, and if it's grippe, it's the most nourishing thing in the world." _Roberts:_ "I'm not going to have the grippe, Agnes." _Mrs. Roberts:_ "Edward! Don't boast! You may be stricken down in an instant. I heard of one person who was taken so suddenly she hadn't time to get her things off, and tumbled right on the bed. You must put some water in it, of course; and hot water is very soothing. You can use some out of the pipes; it's perfectly good." _Mrs. Campbell:_ "Agnes, are you _never_ coming?" _Roberts:_ "Yes, go along, Agnes, do! I shall get on quite well, now. You needn't wait." _Mrs. Roberts:_ "Oh, if I could only stay and think _for_ you, dearest! But I can't, and you must do the best you can. Do keep repeating it all over! It's the only way--" _Mrs. Campbell_, from the door: "Agnes!" _Mrs. Roberts:_ "Amy, I'm coming instantly." _Mrs. Campbell:_ "I declare I shall go without you!"