the cat - World eBook Library

THE CAT,
grew bold and restless, wearying of her austere sur-
roundings, and escaping more than once to wander
over the neighbouring roofs. In the summer time
she was languid as a Creole, drowsing for hours on
the wall beneath the honeysuckle and roses, or sun-
ning herself on the white stones between the pots
of flowering cactus. Exquisitely and fastidiously
neat, sedate in manner, an aristocrat to the tips of
her little claws, she so hated other cats that the
advent of a visitor put all her serenity to flight.
In her own domain she suffered no intrusion. If
over the garden wall two little ears were raised,
two little eyes peeped furtively, if a rustling in the
branches, a trembling of the ivy leaves awakened
her suspicion, her fur bristled, and she sprang like
a young Fury at the stranger. Nothing could re-
strain her, and presently we, the listeners, would
hear the sound of scuffling, a fall, and lamentable
cries. On the whole, an independent and somewhat
lawless cat ; but affectionate and caressing, eager to
roam, and still more glad to return to us when her
vagabond excursions were over.
Moumoutte Blanche was five years old, in the
flower of her beauty, and I had grown attached to
her as a member of the family and a household
god, when, from the Gulf of Pekin, three thousand
leagues away, there came one who was destined to
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