XIII


Affairs for the Keiths passed through another week of what might be called
the transition stage. It took them that long to settle down in their new
house and into some semblance of a routine--two days to the actual
installation, and the evenings full of small matters to arrange. Nan was
busy all day long playing with her new toy. The housekeeping was
fascinating, and Wing Sam a mixture of delight and despair. Like most women
who have led the sheltered life, she had not realized as yet that the
customs of her own fraction of one per cent, were not immutable. Therefore,
she tried to model the household exactly in the pattern of those to which
she had been accustomed. Wing Sam blandly refused to be moulded.

Thus Nan spent all one morning drilling him in the proper etiquette of
answering doors. Mindful of John McGlynn's advice, she did this by precept,
ringing her own door bell, presenting a card as though calling on herself.
Wing Sam's placid exterior changed not. A half hour later the door bell
rang, but no Wing Sam appeared to answer it. It rang again, and again,
until Nan herself opened the door. On the doorstep stood Wing Sam himself.

"I foolee you, too," he announced with huge delight.

Painstakingly Nan conveyed to him that this was neither an amusing game nor
a practical joke. Later in the day the door bell rang again. Nan, hovering
near to gauge the result of her training, saw Wing Sam plant himself firmly
in the opening.