second floor. Pick yourself a room or a suite of rooms or move in all
over the rest of the house. Build yourself a cup of tea and relax. Do as
he says: Act as if you'd arrived before he took off, that you'd met and
agreed verbally to do what you've already agreed to do by letter. Look at
it from his point of view."

"What is his point of view?"

"He's a writer. He rented this house by mail. He banks by mail and shops
by mail and makes his living by writing. Don't be surprised when he hires
a housekeeper by mail and hands her the responsibility in writing. He
lives by the written word."

Mrs. Bagley said, "In other words, the fact that he offered me a job in
writing and I took it in writing--?"

"Writing," said James Holden soberly, "was invented for the express
purpose of recording an agreement between two men in a permanent form
that could be read by other men. The whole world runs on the theory that
no one turns a hand until names are signed to written contracts--and here
you sit, not happy because you weren't contracted-for by a personal
chit-chat and a handshake."

Mrs. Bagley was taken aback slightly by this rather pointed criticism.
What hurt was the fact that, generally speaking, it was true and
especially the way he put it. The young man was too blunt, too
out-spokenly direct. Obviously he needed someone around the place who
wasn't the self-centered writer-type. And, Mrs. Bagley admitted to
herself, there certainly was no evidence of evil-doing here.