"Are we not a bit early to-night, Mamma?" she asked idly as she presented herself before her mother for inspection.
Mrs. Brodie, busy with the last details of her adjustments, waved away the question.
"Have ye washed your hands?" she answered without looking at her. Then with a glance at the clock and without waiting for a reply, she commanded with an appropriate gesture, u Sit in!"
The four people in the room seated themselves at table, Grandma Brodie being, as usual, first. They sat waiting, while Mrs. Brodie's hand poised itself nervously upon the tea cosy; then into the silence of their expectation came the deep note of the grandfather's clock in the hall as it struck the half hour and at the same moment the front door clicked open and was firmly shut. A stick rattled into the stand; heavy footfalls measured themselves along the passage; the kitchen door opened and James Brodie came into the room. He strode to his waiting chair, sat down, stretched forward his hand to receive his own special large cup, brimming with hot tea, received from the oven a large plateful of ham and eggs, accepted the white bread especially cut and buttered for him, had hardly seated himself before he had begun to eat. This, then, was the reason of their punctual attendance, the explanation of their bated expectancy, for the ritual of immediate service for the master of the house, at meal times as in everything, was amongst the unwritten laws governing the conduct of this household.