FLORA. (_Advancing to meet_ CEDRIC.) Cedric!
(FLORA _suddenly perceives_ MR. _and_ MRS. REACH HASLAM _and completely changes her attitude, going towards them_.)
FLORA. (_Lightly._) So we've _all_ got up with the sparrows!
MR. R. HASLAM. No. These two particular sparrows have just come out for a breath of air before retiring to their nest for the day. (_Yawns._)
MRS. R. HASLAM. Work is work, young lady, and insists on being done (_with meaning_), whatever else happens or does not happen.
FLORA. Ah! The birthrate article--has the poor thing been declining all this time?
CEDRIC. (_Anxious for his parents to depart._) Mother, you ought to go to bed at once--you look absolutely exhausted.
MRS. R. HASLAM. Is it surprising? I was just saying to your father that if this kind of thing was likely to occur often I should have to devise some way of procuring tea at sunrise.
MRS. R. HASLAM. I never want what I can't have. I shall doubtless hold out till eight o'clock.
MRS. R. HASLAM. Impossible, child! At four o'clock in the morning!
MR. R. HASLAM. The cook always locks up the kitchen to keep Cuthbert and Fisher out.
CEDRIC. Seems odd that in a house like this you can't have a cup of tea whenever you happen to want it!
MRS. R. HASLAM. (_Coldly resenting this criticism of her housekeeping._) Father, shall we go?
MRS. R. HASLAM. It's very good of you to offer me tea in my own garden, but----
FLORA. (_With great charm._) Not at all. (_Opening her bag._) I have my Thermos. I filled it yesterday before starting. You see, we had no programme, and I didn't know where we might ultimately be landed. Besides, I never travel without it. (_She unscrews the Thermos flask and pours out the steaming tea into the patent cover. Then undoes a little packet containing sugar._) One lump, isn't it? (_Handing the cup, with a spoon, to_ MRS. REACH HASLAM, _who accepts it_.) Sit down and drink it. I guessed about forty places where I _might_ pour that tea out--and they were all wrong! (MRS. REACH HASLAM _discovers that the tea is scalding_.) It _is_ hot, isn't it?
MRS. R. HASLAM. (_Sipping._) I'm afraid you didn't sleep very well, Flora.
MRS. R. HASLAM. You're down so exceedingly early.
FLORA. The fact is, I could not get off to sleep.