quarrel between me and Susan in revenge for what I had said at Martha's
four o'clock milk.

"Meanwhile Susan began to take the thing very seriously, and hinted that
the cat's opposition to me might be a providential warning against me.
'I never knew her to take such a prejudice against anyone before,' she
said, 'except against that converted Jew who afterwards turned out to be
a burglar, and nearly murdered poor dear Mr. Higby, the Baptist
preacher, the night he broke into Mr. Higby's house and stole all his
hams.' Once when I did manage to give the Maltese a surreptitious kick,
and she yelled as if she was half-killed, Susan said, 'I am really
afraid I shall have to ask you to leave us now. Poor pussy's nerves are
so thoroughly upset that I must devote all my energies to soothing her.
I do hope she is mistaken in her estimate of you.' This was not very
encouraging, and I saw clearly that if the Maltese kept up her
opposition the chances that Susan would marry me were not worth a rush.

"Did I tell you that I had a large grey cat by the name of Thomas
Aquinas? He was in some respects the most remarkable cat I ever met.
Most people considered him rather a dull person, but among cats he was
conceded to have a colossal mind. Cats would come from miles away to ask
his advice about things. I don't mean such trifling matters as his views
on mice-catching--which, by the way, is a thing that has very little
interest for most cats--or his opinion of the best way in which to get a
canary bird through the bars of a cage. They used to consult him on
matters of the highest importance, and the opinions that he used to give
would have laid over those of Benjamin Franklin himself. Why Martha
Washington told me that Thomas Aquinas knew more about bringing up
kittens than the oldest and most experienced feline matron that she had
ever known. As for common sense, Thomas Aquinas was just a solid chunk
of it, as you might say, and I got into the habit of consulting him
whenever I wanted a good, safe, cautious opinion. He would see at a
glance where the trouble was, and would give me advice that no lawyer
could have beaten, no matter how big a fee he might have charged.

"Well! I went home from Susan's house, and I said to Thomas Aquinas,
'Thomas,' for he was one of those cats that you would no more have
called 'Tom' than you would call Mr. Gladstone 'Bill'--'Thomas,' I said,
'I want you to come with me to Miss Susan's and tell that Maltes