“Well, Nance, you have condescended to join us?”

“If that is the word you use, Father. I felt simply that I was joining you.”  Nance embraced her mother and went to her seat, obeying the unrecognized family law, that the father should not receive a morning salute. “I have never taken my place before such a pile of gifts. Do I fall upon them, or wait for those who delay longer than I?”

“Have we waited for you?”

“I observed you had, Father, was indeed struck by it.  But was the process congenial enough to be emulated?”