Inspecting the Premises

Golden autumn sunlight dappled the. freshly whitened south portico of the White House, and a gardener steadily swept at the fallen leaves around the diplomatic entrance. At one minute before 2, the shrieking sirens of an official motorcade split the air, and quickly pomp and circumstance turned into slapstick comedy. The big black limousine pulled up smartly before the red-carpeted doorway. Out popped a beaming Ronald Reagan and his smiling wife.

No one was there to meet them.

Undaunted, the Reagans started to walk into the White House. But before they could disappear inside, they nearly caromed off a flustered First Couple dashing belatedly up to greet their successors. Jimmy and Rosalynn quickly shepherded the Reagans back outside as the President pointed ostentatiously at his watch and said, "I think they're a little early." "A little bit early," Reagan chimed in. Now officially met, the two couples, each with arms entwined, dutifully smiled and shook hands for the press. Then they about-faced and marched off, the women to the private quarters, the men along the Rose Garden promenade to the Oval Office.

Even before her meeting with Rosalynn, reported Washington Correspondent Johanna McGeary, Nancy showed she was learning the velvet ropes of living in the White House. Earlier in the week she had borrowed a presidential JetStar to pop up to Manhattan to shop and have her hair done at Monsieur Marc's.

With Rosalynn, she sipped tea but left the fattening pastries untouched while she plied her hostess with housekeeping questions. Rosalynn also escorted her out on the "Truman balcony" to gaze over the spacious South Lawn and led her through the public and private rooms of her new dwelling. Advised Rosalynn: "The most important thing about the White House is to enjoy it." Nancy clearly was prepared to.

Later, with Rosalynn absent--unaccountably, she had not been told about the meeting--Nancy talked to Carter in the Oval Office while her husband stood awkwardly by, BURNETT--CONTACT his eyes wandering aimlessly about the room. Nancy conversed intently about the furniture arrangement, the slip covers, the bibelots scattered around, already seeming to be rearranging them in her mind.

"I moved the chairs around myself to face the fire," said Carter. There was the slightest gleam of perspiration on his upper lip.

After the exchange of pleasantries, the Reagans made a triumphant exit, walking hand in hand down the driveway, surrounded by throngs of admirers. The Carters slipped quietly out the back entrance of the White House and flew off by helicopter to the comforting solitude of Camp David.

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