received the announcement of his present!
Probably he soon would find me wanting in other things.

As I took our plates to the kitchen and brought on a lettuce and
tomato salad with a mayonnaise dressing over which I had toiled for an
hour, I was trying hard to choke back the tears.

When I brought on the baked apples which I had prepared with especial
care for dessert, Dick gave them one glance which to my oversensitive
mind looked disparaging. Then he pushed back his chair.

"Don't believe I want any dessert today. The rest of the dinner was so
good I ate too much of it. Eat yours and I'll undo your surprise."

"Whatever in the world?" I began as Dicky lifted the lid and revealed
a big Angora cat. Then my voice changed. "Why, Dicky, you don't
mean--" But Dicky was absorbed in lifting the cat out.

"Isn't she a beauty?" he said admiringly. But I was almost into the
dining room.

"I suppose she is," I replied faintly, "but surely you do not intend
her for me?"

"Why not?" Dicky's tone was sharper than I had ever heard it. He set
the cat down on the floor and she walked over to me. I pushed her away
gently with my foot as I replied:

"Because I dislike cats--intensely. Besides, you know cats are so
unsanitary, always carrying disease--"

"Oh, get out of it, Madge," Dicky interrupted. "Forget that scientific
foolishness you absorbed when you were school ma'aming. Besides, this
cat is a thoroughbred, never been outside the home where she was born
till now. Do you happen to know what this gift you are tossing aside
so nonchalantly would have cost if it hadn't been given me by a dear
friend? A cool two hundred, that's all. It seems to me you might try
to get over your prejudices, especially when I tell you that I am very
fond of cats and like to see them around."

Dicky's voice held a note of appeal, but I chose to ignore it. My
particular little devil must have sat at my elbow.

"I am sorry," I said coldly, "but really, I do not see why it is any
more incumbent on me to try to overcome my very real aversion to cats
than it is for you to try to do without their society."

"Very well," Dicky exclaimed angrily, turning toward the door. "If you
feel that way about it, there is nothing more to be said."

Then Dicky slammed the living room door behind him to emphasize his
words, went down the hall, slammed the apartment door and ran down the
steps.

Back in the living room, huddled up in the big chair which is t