And they went upstairs in a rather solemn procession.



IV


Nellie led the way to the chamber known as "Maisie's room," where the
youngest of the Machins was wont to sleep in charge of the nurse who,
under the supervision of the mother of all three, had dominion over
Robert, Ralph and their little sister.

The first thing that Edward Henry noticed was the screen which shut
off one of the beds. The unfurling of the four-fold screen was always
a sure sign that Nellie was taking an infantile illness seriously. It
was an indication to Edward Henry of the importance of the dog-bite in
Nellie's esteem.

When all the chicks of the brood happened to be simultaneously sound
the screen reposed, inconspicuous, at an angle against a wall behind
the door; but when pestilence was abroad, the screen travelled from
one room to another in the wake of it, and, spreading wide, took part
in the battle of life and death.

In an angle of the screen, on the side of it away from the bed and
near the fire (in times of stress Nellie would not rely on radiators)
sat old Mrs.. Machin, knitting. She was a thin, bony woman of
sixty-nine years, and as hard and imperishable as teak. So far as her
son knew she had only had two illnesses in her life. The first was an
attack of influenza, and the second was an attack of acute rheumatism,