The Oval Office was in a shambles--the door to the

hall stood ajar, the guard was gone, and the passageway

leading to the door was jammed with the chairs,

couches, tables and other furniture that had been hur-

riedly removed from the President s office. The huge

three-screen television console had been left but a faded

quilted cover had been thrown over it and the family

pictures usually displayed on top of. the television cab-

inet were gone. The desk top was bare.

The curving west wall was inse ~, with light-green

bookshelves. Long ago some General Services Admin-

istration interior decorator had been called in to select

sets of books to be placed on these shelves; he had

chosen them for the color and design of their bindings,

and had placed them, inert, between golden eagle book-

ends. Three china vases of obscure origin filled the gaps

between the sets of books.

Apparently the President s thoughts bad rested often

on the opposite side of the room where French doors

and tall windows opened the view to the White House

residence and the snow-covered garden in between. In

front of the windows was a totem-like cedar carving, a

gift from constituents in the President s home state; it

squatted there like a benign house god. Between the

northernmost window and a curved door leading to the

secretaries room, columned pedestals held large bowls

filled with fresh-cut flowers. On the walls on either side