“A haven of refuge at last,” thought I, “anyway a carpet and a cushioned seat.” But even here three men were sitting and waiting in solemn silence, and all the staring had to be gone through again.
Ten minutes or a quarter of an hour of this awful tension passed, and then two more individuals were ushered in, and sat down, not one—of all the five staring beings—uttering a word. I was getting quite nervous, and wondering how best to slip away, when the door opened again.
Merely expecting a sixth sitter, I did not even take the trouble to look up. A vision stopped before me.
“Mrs. Tweedie, I am delighted to meet you,” it said. But somehow it was so short and round and smiling, that I did not grasp the fact that President Roosevelt himself was addressing me. A few pleasant words and he added, “If you will go in there, I will be with you in a moment.”
I went in. This was his own private room, large, plain, and neat, with an enormous, highly polished table reflecting a few roses in a vase. It was just a nice sort of office and nothing more. The only interesting personal thing appeared to be a business-like gun standing in a corner.
I sat and waited, but as the door was wide open I could see and hear the following:
“How do you do? Delighted to see you. Am very busy at the moment, but if there is anything I could do for you quickly, well——” Hesitancy, and a few murmured remarks.
“Well, I’m afraid I can’t spare any time for that this morning. Good-bye!” So in five minutes the President got rid of all those five long-suffering, long-waiting mortals.
That was enough to make one run away without even waiting to say Good-bye. But feeling how foolish that kind of thing would be, I braced myself for the effort, and murmured:
“I’ve not come to ask you to make me a Bishop, or my uncle a Senator, or my nephew an Ambassador, so perhaps I’ve no business here at all. In fact, I’ve not come to ask for anything.”