Leaving Comstock to his perusal of the shelves, Grundy tip-toed out of the room, and then looking in no particular direction, he called, "Hello? Who are you! Where are you?"
The same metallic voice answered, "I am the house. I am here to supply your wants, to feed you and make you comfortable."
When Comstock heard this the shock was too much for him. He swayed, and then sank, with an armful of books, into the deep recesses of an easy chair. A cloud of dust surrounded him. Instantly a whirring sound emanated from a screened section of the floor and he felt rather than saw the dust disappearing.
Considerably shaken, Grundy came back into the library. Helen said, "What do you suppose it is, darling?"
"Bowdler has told me about robots ... machines that act almost like we do, but I never, ever, thought that one could run a whole house this way!"
Comstock was willing to accept the robot as he would have the word fairy when he was a child and he was even more inclined to confuse the two things, when at Grundy's mention of being hungry, the door swung open and a wheeled cart entered loaded down with food the like of which none of the three had ever seen.
Sitting in a rather numb silence the three people stared at the food. But then the odors that came from it were too much for them and disregarding the magic of its appearance they ate as they never had before.
That was the beginning, for Grundy and Helen and Comstock, of an enchanted month. At first, from minute to minute, they expected pursuit, and capture. But as time passed happily by, as every fleeting fancy was instantly taken care of by the house, they relaxed, and what was most important, began to devote almost all their waking hours to the books that confronted them on every side, in every room of the house.
No one ever seemed to pass the house, they heard no sounds from outside. They were in a charmed circle, in which every desire was instantly fulfilled.