Mrs. Gilmour was never very nice to Auntie May after that. She began to be nasty again at breakfast. Auntie May was reading her letters, and one of them was from Mrs. Dillon.
'"Admiral Togo,"' Auntie May read out, '"is the chief joy of my life." Oh listen, all of you, for you will be so much amused; I am not, for of course it seems to me the obvious and natural thing to do. "He is coming with me to my winter quarters in South Africa."'
'And Mr. Dillon—is he being left behind?' said Mrs. Gilmour. 'Though after all, what is a husband in comparison with a cat? And she is taking a hired attendant for him, and possibly a chef, and engaging a private cabin for him—of course?'
'There isn't a Mr. Dillon,' said Auntie May, shaking with laughter, 'but as far as the cabin goes, that is precisely1 what she is doing. She says so.'
Mrs. Gilmour looked a little put out for a moment, then she said:
'I don't suppose they would admit the young gentleman except on those conditions. Well, well, if people have absurd fancies they must pay for them. Your friend seems to have plenty of good money to throw away!'
Auntie May said she would send a letter of directions to Mrs. Dillon's maid, to tell her how to feed the kitten on the voyage. Forgetting apparently2 that Mrs. Gilmour was there still, she went on:
'When medicine has to be given, I prefer it in the form of powders.' Mrs. Gilmour pretended to be interested in order to be nastier afterwards. 'To liquids they close their throats somehow, and it runs out of the corner of their mouths. As for giving pills! Petronilla shoots the pill several feet into the air, and the first thing that tells me she hasn't swallowed it is the noise it makes as it hits the ceiling. Poor Pet! She appears to think it funny.'
'So do I!' said Beatrice, screaming with laughter. 'I think I see Petronilla, with her Burne-Jones angel expression, staring up to the ceiling to see if she has hit the bull's eye, and you in despair because you can't get the pills driven into her.'
'Has your cat had any very alarming illnesses?' inquired Mrs. Gilmour, with a very perfidious3 expression, but Auntie May was quite taken in by her appearance of interest.
'Let me see, Petronilla has had gastritis, and she has once ricked her back jumping backwards4, and then she had to have massage—'
'Did it come expensive?' inquired the old lady.
'Yes, very. My cats cost me a fortune. What with their food and their illnesses, etc., what I can raise on Pet's kittens hardly repays me for my outlay5.'
'Why don't you keep a nice common underbred kitchen cat that nobody wants to steal? A serviceable beast that can go out in all weathers, and get through the long grass without getting its fur wet and draggled,' said Mrs. Gilmour.
'But as I live in London,' retorted Auntie May, 'where there is no long grass—'
'In London,' said Tom, 'I should say myself that a nice tiler and mouser would be more appropriate.'
'I don't like tilers and mousers or beetlers in my bed,' said Auntie May hotly. 'I should never care to kiss cats that had any horrid6 pursuit of that kind. And as for mice—do you mean to imply, Tom, that Loki cannot catch a mouse as well as anybody if he had the chance?'
'There are plenty in my carpentering shed,' said Tom. 'Why don't you let him have a try?'
'It's disgusting!' said Auntie May. 'But yet—I can't have Loki depreciated8 and looked down on. Very well, I will turn him in there for a few hours and give him a chance of winning his spurs, only I am not sure if he does that I shall ever feel able to speak to him again! He has something better to do in life than catching9 mice, but I won't have him humiliated10, and he shall show you that he can take mousing in his stride.'
To me she said, 'Now, Loki, do your level best, but only this once, mind. You are not to become a slave to the mousing habit, or let it grow on you. Come along to the carpenter's shed.'
She took me there and left me alone, shutting the door after her. I implored11 her to stay, but she said No, that I must go through it alone. At first I cried, but becoming convinced she could not hear me, I left off. I played with shavings for about an hour. It was my first introduction to the fascinating, lovely, curly, crunchy, clean, white things. I could bunch them up in my paws and throw them over my shoulder, and they crackled and twisted when I seized them again as if they were alive.
I had never seen a mouse in my life.
Presently I saw what I should have said were two bright boot-buttons set very near together, side by side, though, not one on top of the other as they would be all down a boot. That roused my suspicions, and I made a wild dash into the heap of shavings whence they peeped out. I can say no more than this to account for what I did. I felt horrid afterwards, not to say rather ill, but at the time I felt nothing but a desire to get that mouse (for, of course, it was a mouse), and lay it at the feet of Auntie May, or, better still, throw it in Mrs. Gilmour's face. I should have died if I had not got it, and I did get it. It was a mouse, although I hardly looked. I just put my paws, which are very broad and long, on it and it lay quite still beneath them and didn't move a bit.
I did not know what in the world to do with it now that I had got it safe. I knew that decency12 dictated13 that I should eat it, but I had not the slightest idea where to begin, and I suppose, while I was thinking, I let my paws rest on it rather more lightly, and it suddenly got up and walked away!
I could not stand such an arrant14 piece of cheek as that, so I got it back, with very little trouble, for it had not gone far. In a few moments I loosened my paws again on purpose to see what it would do. Sure enough it walked away again! It began to be a sort of game we were playing, and my blood was up.
It was really rather a cheeky mouse, I think, and enjoyed the game as much as I did. Presently I varied15 the fun a little and tossed it up and down two or three times in the air, catching it again in my paws. This went on a long time, and I got quite excited, till the last time it came down it lay quite still, and though I waited for it to walk away again as usual it did not make the slightest attempt to get up. I believe it was dead, really and truly, not pretending, but there wasn't a bruise16 on its body or a hole in its skin anywhere, for I looked carefully. I got bored with it and caught another. That one I nipped in catching, I suppose, for it died at once. I tried to eat it, but no, I find I don't care for mouse-flesh.
Before Tom and Beatrice came for me I had laid another brown body beside the other two, and Tom said when he saw them:
'One to May! Game little cat! Three in two hours!'
Auntie May hadn't felt able to come, but Beatrice told her all about it.
'He didn't really eat any, May, only tried one. It looked like the inside of a clock somehow.'
'Oh, don't, you pig!' screamed Auntie May, and cried, actually cried, about the poor, dear, dead, darling little mice! I cried too, and promised her I would never catch any more. As a matter of fact, it really isn't a bit in my line. I am not a stable, or a kitchen, or even a carpenter's cat, and mousing is not a fit pursuit for Petronilla's child.
'So Loki has vindicated17 his reputation!' remarked Mrs. Gilmour, when she heard of what Beatrice was pleased to call my prowess. 'Disgusting little cruel wretch18! The principle of cruelty is deeply embedded19 in a cat's consciousness. Now a dog—'
'What does a dog do to a rat?' asked Auntie May rudely. But Mrs. Gilmour took no notice.
'The dog is a noble animal—'
'I once wrote that out a hundred times in my copy-book,' observed Amerye, 'and I can't write any better now, and I hate dogs because of it!'
'A dog has dignity, a cat has only impudence,' continued Mrs. Gilmour, 'and comes when he is called—'
'To dinner, eh?' said Auntie May. 'I never knew a cat that would come when it was called to dinner, even. A cat is at least consistent. A dog is too greedy to wait to be consistent.'
'A dog can be greedy with dignity!' said Mrs. Gilmour. 'I have seen him. And yet he is man's slave—self-constituted.'
'I prefer the independence of cats,' retorted Auntie May. 'They won't be hustled—why should they? It is a mistake to want to enslave them and destroy all their individuality. Dogs simply feed the love of domineering that is implanted in our natures. Men—you even, Tom, the nicest of them—enjoy saying "To heel, sir!" A cat never follows, it goes before, and looks back and waits for you if it fancies you. It has pronounced likes and dislikes, and is not afraid to show them. A dog will lick any one's hand.'
'And a cat will scratch any one's nose. How do you manage in London, Miss Graham, when you have to go out? Do you confide21 in all your partners, and tell them that it was your favourite cat that scratched you through thick and thin?'
'Yes, May,' said Beatrice, 'I could not help looking at your neck last night at dinner, and wondering how you managed?'
'That was poor Loki,' said Auntie May hastily. 'He will get on to my shoulder and take flying leaps at the electric light globes.'
'I don't see why he need kick off from your neck, though,' said Tom.
'Oh, don't blame his dear spirits!' said that nasty old woman. 'Do you see him now trying to run away with the blind tassel22? He will hang himself to a certainty.'
I was sitting on the window seat and playing with the cord. I was not aware that it was attached to the blind, for it was lying quite quietly on the sill when it came into my head that I should like to carry it off to play with. When, having got it well between my jaws23, I leapt off with it, I found myself hanging to it by my teeth, and it gave me a nasty jar.
One thing I noticed, although Mrs. Gilmour was always down on me when Auntie May was there, she was quite different when we were alone together. Then she used to hold out her wrinkled claw and flip24 her ribbons to attract me, and say, 'Poos! Poos!' as if she wished me to come to her; but I was not quite sure, so I never ventured, though she was not a bad old thing in the main and awfully25 fond of her grandchildren, and scolded them only very gently for the noise they made every day about six o'clock.
I don't know how it was, but at that time they all lost their heads, and screeched26 and shouted and walloped about the house like maniacs27 or cats, with Miss Grueber scolding them, but not in a way to make them leave off. I used to feel quite excited too, and run after their legs, and nearly get trodden on; and Miss Grueber's large flat foot was no joke, I can tell you. Still, it was quite amusing playing Blind Man's Buff and not getting caught. They always put me into their games, and politely caught me when I put myself in the way of the one who was blindfolded28. Of course I could not be blindfolded, so they had to let me off being Blind Man, like Kitty, who never would play fair, but always peeped under the handkerchief.
'Don't be angry with her, she's only a child!' Rosamond used to say, 'and let her go last down stairs, because we are heavier, and might come on top of her.'
They used to come down the stairs helter-skelter on their stomachs, bumping on every step. I used to come down too, but I could not help using my feet, and therefore I ran along by the side of them, and got to the bottom first.
Once Mrs. Gilmour came out of the drawing-room, just as the whole procession landed on the mat at the bottom of the staircase. The noise was deafening29. She remarked on it.
'My dear children,' she said, standing30 at the open door of the drawing-room as they all came tumbling at her feet, 'I tremble to think what your little stomachs must look like! Have you ever seen toast done on a gridiron? And the racket is deafening. Such yells! Have you all gone mad? And the cat too, he makes as much noise as any of you!'
'Oh, Granny,' pleaded Rosamond, very much out of breath, 'please don't mind the row. It's only just after six. Don't you know that children and cats always go a little wild at night?'
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1
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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2
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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3
perfidious
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| adj.不忠的，背信弃义的 | |
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4
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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5
outlay
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| n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费 | |
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6
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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7
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
depreciated
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| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
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9
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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10
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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11
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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13
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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14
arrant
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| adj.极端的；最大的 | |
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15
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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16
bruise
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| n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤 | |
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17
vindicated
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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18
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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19
embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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21
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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tassel
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| n.流苏，穗；v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须 | |
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23
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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24
flip
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| vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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26
screeched
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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27
maniacs
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| n.疯子（maniac的复数形式） | |
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28
blindfolded
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| v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗 | |
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29
deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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30
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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