Crack open the Aldiss lamps, Mavis!

Maisie's got the day off. T.Aldous' 'phone is still diverted to Maisie's, which in turn is diverted to Maudie's 'phone. Four times in the past hour Maudie has taken a call for T.Aldous, tried to put it through to T.Aldous and had it ring on Maisie's. We're all under instruction to pick up calls from unoccupied desks so one or other of us picks the call up. Maudie then has to run over to T.Aldous' office to tell him that there's a call on whoever's 'phone is now occupied (the call having gone through so many relays that Maudie can't pick it up).

Each time we hear the following:

"Can you put it through to my 'phone?"

"No, it's going through to Maisie's 'phone. x has picked the call up."

"I must take my 'phone back from Maisie's so that I'm not interrupting people's work."

Of course he doesn't. He never does, not in all the nearly two decades we've been in this building. We'll miss it if he ever does.