the cat - World eBook Library

THE CAT:
that my eyes were mirrors in which her troubled
soul must study my good or bad designs. It is
terrifying to think how near an animal is to us
when it can realize such things.
For the first time I looked attentively at the little
visitor who for two weeks had shared my lodgings.
She was tawny as a wild hare, and striped like a
tiger. Her face and neck were white. Certainly
an ugly and a miserable cat ; but her very ugliness
had in it something strange and appealing, some-
thing which contrasted pleasantly with the comely
cats of France. Her movements were stealthy and
sinuous, her great ears stood erect, her tail was
long and ragged, her eyes alone were beautiful, the
deep golden eyes of the East, restless and full of
expression.
While I watched her, I carelessly laid my hand
on her head, and stroked the yellow fur. It was
hot mere physical pleasure she felt in the caress,
but a sense of protection, of sympathy in her
abandonment. It was for this she had crept from
her hiding-place ; it was for this, and not for food
and drink, that she had come, wistful and terrified,
to beg. Her little cat soul implored some com-
pany, some friendship in a lonely world.
Where had she learned this need, poor outcast,
never before touched by a kindly hand, never the
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