"Shall I tell her ladyship you're here, miss?" asked the maid gently. "She knows it," said Char shortly. "I brought Dr. Prince." The zealous Miss Bruce slipped silently from the room and down into the hall again. Lady Vivian, oblivious of her daughter's claims, was discussing Dr. Prince's verdict in lowered tones with Captain Trevellyan. Miss Bruce felt a sort of melancholy triumph in beholding this justification for Char's obvious sense of injury. "Miss Vivian is in her room, and waiting for you most anxiously," she said reproachfully. "She thought you were still with Sir Piers. She won't go to bed until she knows whether she may see him." "Poor child, it wouldn't do her any good to see him," said Joanna. "There's no sign of returning consciousness yet, though Dr. Prince thinks he may come to himself almost any time, and then everything depends upon his being kept absolutely quiet. But I'll go up to Char." She went upstairs, but came down again much sooner than Miss Bruce approved. "I've told her to go to bed," she placidly informed the secretary. "She can't do anything, and she looks very tired." "She is far from well, I'm afraid," stiffly remarked Miss Bruce. "Well, I leave her to you, Miss Bruce. I know you'll take the most devoted care of her. Let her sleep as long as she can in the morning." "Cousin Joanna, is there anything I can do?" asked Trevellyan wistfully. "I don't think so, Johnnie. You'll come round tomorrow?" She was smiling at him quite naturally. "The first thing. You're sure there's nothing I can do tonight--sit up with him, or anything?" "My maid and I are going to do it between us. We shall have a nurse down from London by midday tomorrow, I hope." "Let me sit up instead of you." She smiled again. "Certainly not. I'm only going to take the first half of the night--much the easiest. Then I shall probably go to sleep, unless there's any change, when, of course, they'll fetch me. But Dr. Prince doesn't think there will be yet, and I shall take all the rest I can. I'm much more likely to be wanted at night later on." Miss Bruce went upstairs again, much more nearly disposed to wonder at such reasonableness than to admire it. Her ideals were early Victorian ones, and although she knew that she could not hope for hysterics from Lady Vivian, she would have much preferred at least to hear her declare that sleep would be utterly impossible to her, and that she should spend the night hovering between her unconscious husband and her prostrate daughter. But Lady Vivian went to bed at half-past twelve, and did not even insist upon merely lying down in her dressing-gown, nor did she reappear in Sir Piers's room until eight o'clock on the following morning. There had been no change during the night. Char slept heavily until ten o'clock, then woke and rang her bell rather indignantly. Miss Bruce, who had been hovering about anxiously since seven that morning, appeared instantly at the door.