Waiting for an appointment

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

“My interview was scheduled for eleven at the council offices. I arrived fifteen minutes early and was directed to a waiting room with eight chairs. A receptionist explained that the previous meeting was running late and offered a new estimate of twenty minutes. There were magazines on a low table and a window overlooking the bus stop. I chose the chair nearest the door so that I would hear my name.

An explained delay feels different from an unexplained one. The minutes still pass at the same speed, but they no longer seem to be hiding something. I could send a message, decide whether to get water and stop interpreting every footstep as a verdict. The room was plain, yet the information made it hospitable. Comfort is not always a softer chair. Sometimes it is knowing what is happening and being told when that changes. A person waiting should not have to become a detective merely to organise the next half hour.”

Source B: an original nineteenth-century-style letter or account, written for practice; this is not an archival document.

“I attended the office of a shipping agent at the appointed hour and remained in the outer room for nearly an hour beyond it. No one explained the delay. Twice a clerk passed through carrying papers, and twice I rose under the impression that my turn had arrived. The chairs were upholstered with considerable expense; the silence was furnished more generously still.

Business must sometimes overrun its arrangements. I do not demand that every interview end at the stroke of a clock. But an explanation would permit the visitor to judge whether to wait, return or send word elsewhere. Courtesy is not exhausted by the quality of a carpet. It includes recognising that the person outside the door has affairs of his own, even when they are invisible to those within.”

Refer to both sources. Infer the differences in the waiting arrangements and information provided. Write a summary supported by details from both sources.