"I think she waits admirably," murmured Lefferts aside to his host.
"Extremely competent, I call it," said Crane clearly. "Don't give it another thought, Jane-Ellen. See," he added, glancing at Tucker's face which was distorted with anger, "Mr. Tucker has forgotten it already."
"Oh, sir, how kind you are to me!" cried the cook and ran hastily into the pantry, from which a sound which might have been a cough was instantly heard.
"Yours is a strange but delightful home, Crane," observed Lefferts. "I don't really recall ever having experienced anything quite like it."
"You refer, I fancy," replied Crane, "to the simple peace, the assured confidence that—"
"That something unexpected is going to happen within the next ten seconds."
Tucker and Reed, both absorbed in their private wrongs, were for an instant like deaf men, but the latter having now dried his neck and as much of his collar as was possible, showed signs of coming to, so that Crane included both in the conversation.
"Lefferts and I were speaking," he said, slightly raising his voice, "of the peculiar atmosphere that makes for the enjoyment of a home. What, Mr. Reed, do you think is most essential?"
"Just one moment, Mr. Crane," said Reed. "I want to say a word more of that other subject we were speaking of."
Crane's seat allowed him to see the pantry door before any one else could. On it his eyes were fixed as he answered thoughtfully: