"Oh, they're not worth it, Mrs. Potter. They weren't very far away." "Perhaps they were just where mine have been all the evening--with poor Miss Vivian. She'll be feeling it tonight, poor dear, knowing she's got to leave tomorrow, and Sir Piers so ill. I _do_ think she's wonderful." "I must say, so do I," Miss Henderson said thoughtfully. "When she used always to refuse me the afternoon off, or any sort of leave, and say that she couldn't understand putting anything before the work, I used to resent it sometimes, I must own. But, really, she's lived up to it herself so splendidly that one can't ever say another word." "Isn't Sir Piers _any_ better?" asked Miss Plumtree pityingly. "Not a bit, I think. But he's not exactly in immediate danger, either. Only the house has to be kept quiet, so I suppose she can't come backwards and forwards like she used, and it's a choice between her leaving home or giving up the work altogether." "Well, I _do_ think it's splendid of her!" "Because, of course," Tony said, "nobody could take her place here. And I suppose she can't help knowing that. It will seem extraordinary having her in the Hostel, won't it?" "It won't really be comfortable for her after Plessing, I'm afraid. I wish I could think of some better arrangement...." murmured Mrs. Bullivant to herself. "Oh, Mrs. Bullivant!" cried Grace Jones. "You couldn't do more than give up your own bedroom and your own sitting-room to her!" Then, because the heretical words "And that's more than she deserves," were trembling on her tongue, Grace went upstairs to bed. Her sense of loyalty to her chief did not allow her to throw any doubt on the glory of her return to work under such circumstances. Moreover, the Hostel's point of view on the subject was as adamantine as it was universal. XII The next morning Char came back to the office. She found her table loaded with violets and a blazing fire on the hearth. Miss Delmege greeted her with an air of admiring wonder, suffused by a tinge of respectful pity, and ventured to hope that Sir Piers Vivian was better. No one else was sufficiently daring to approach so personal a topic, but little Miss Anthony, blushing brightly, turned round at the door just as she was leaving the room with her work, and said stammeringly that it was so nice to see Miss Vivian back in the office again. Char smiled. She was still looking ill, and she knew that her departure from Plessing had been a severe strain on her barely recovered strength. The effort of giving her attention to the arrears of work which required it taxed all her powers of determination. "Is this all the back work, Miss Delmege?" "Yes, I think so, Miss Vivian." "There are several things here which ought to have been brought to me." "I suppose Miss Jones didn't know."