"You'll have some tea before you go, won't you?"
"Thank you," she said graciously. "Only if you're quite sure that it wouldn't put anyone out, give any extra trouble."
"I can find out the state of the commissariat first, if you like," he rejoined, and left the room.
Miss Marchrose had gone already.
Edna's manner altered to one of businesslike determination on the instant.
"I'm going to make a little suggestion," she said clearly.
The Alderman looked up, and at the same instant Fairfax Fuller took two steps forward.
"It isn't, perhaps, a very easy thing for me to say," Lady Rossiter said unfalteringly, "but we all know one another here. And I believe—oh, so intensely!—in having courage. But never mind that. I needn't go into any details, but it's this—I think the general feeling amongst the staff is that there might be some slight alteration in the duties of the Lady Superintendent. They don't altogether like her doing so much. It's natural enough, isn't it? Perhaps they feel that inordinately long hours kept by one person cast a slur upon the others, who don't seem to be quite so devoted. Perhaps she hasn't been very tactful about it. I don't know about that. But at all events, couldn't we give her a holiday from evening work for the present? Let her go at about four o'clock?"
The Alderman's prawn-like eyes were fixed admiringly upon Lady Rossiter, but he said nothing.
Sir Julian spoke.