"Miss Jones? You don't mean to say that the genteel Delmege has abdicated in favour of Miss Jones? What a piece of luck for us!" cried Lady Vivian. "Miss Delmege is in bed with influenza." "Excellent!" said Joanna callously. "I shall be delighted to see Miss Jones. I wanted to ask her here, but Char nearly had a fit at the idea. She'll certainly think I've done it out of _malice prepense_, as it is. She's got a most pigheaded prejudice against that nice Miss Jones." "Lady Vivian!" Lady Vivian laughed. "You'll have to break it to her, Miss Bruce, that it's Miss Jones who is coming. And don't let her think I did it on purpose!" "I am sure she would never think anything of the sort." "Perhaps not. But Char does get very odd ideas into her head, when she thinks there's any risk of _lèse-majesté_ to her Directorship. I must say," observed Joanna thoughtfully, preparing to go upstairs for her night watch, "I often wish that when Char was younger I'd smacked some of the nonsense out--" But before this well-worn aspiration of Miss Vivian's parent, Miss Bruce took her indignant departure. IX "Rather strange, isn't it?" said Miss Delmege in tones of weak despondency. "If it hadn't been for this wretched flu, _I_ should have been going out to Plessing every day with the work, I suppose, as Gracie is doing now." "Yes, I suppose you would," agreed Miss Henderson blankly. She sat on the foot of the bed, which was surrounded by a perfect wilderness of screens. Miss Delmege reclined against two pillows, screwed against her back at an uncomfortable-looking angle. The room was not warmed, and the invalid wore a small flannel dressing-jacket, rather soiled and very much crumpled, a loosely knitted woolly jersey of dingy appearance and an ugly mustard colour, and over everything else an old quilted pink dressing-gown, with a cotton-wool-like substance bursting from the cuffs and elbows. Her hair was pinned up carelessly, and her expression was a much dejected one. Miss Henderson was knitting in a spasmodic way, and stopping every now and then to blow her nose violently. She had several times during the afternoon ejaculated vehemently that a cold wasn't flu, she was thankful to say. "It's probably the beginning of it, though," Miss Delmege replied pessimistically. "You're hipped, Delmege, that's what you are--regularly hipped. Now, don't you think it would do you good to come downstairs for tea? There's a fire in the sitting-room." "Well, I don't mind if I do. It'll seem quite peculiar to be downstairs again. Fancy, I've been up here five whole days! And I'm really not a person to give way, as a rule. At least, not so far as I know, I'm not." "It's nearly four now. Look here, I'll put a kettle on, and you can have some hot water." "Thanks, dear," said Miss Delmege graciously, "but don't bother. My hot-water bottle is still quite warm. I can use that."