Jane sat stock still a minute, utterly flabbergasted--this was not what she had been expecting at all, nor what she had been prepared to ask for. Though not unwelcome. "I...uh...I don't know what to say, I hadn't expected this at all, after the short time I've worked here," she finally responded. "And I'm grateful--deeply grateful--for your appreciation of my work. But that's actually not what I had intended to ask for," she went on, feeling a little nervous now--on top of this generous raise, asking for more now seemed a little greedy. But her work was important to her and she'd been wanting this for some time now. "Actually, what I had wanted to say--what we discussed before, actually, when...well, when you were not yourself--I had wanted to see if I could get some private lab space--just a bit of one, an unused cupboard or corner of a room. You see, I'm arriving at a point in some of my work where I need to keep the experiment isolated from any outside influences, and where I've been working, the Love Chamber--well, it's been quite adequate, but is not exactly ideal for this next step, because there's all that...well, Love floating around and those vibrations are not appropriate at all for this. And of course, the Death Chamber isn't a place where you can do any labwork." The Death Chamber was filled with the most potent vibrations in the Department, as far as Jane was concerned, and they were best taken in small doses.

She waited and watched Flamsteed to see what his reaction would be to this--hopefully at least not any worse than the last time.