ey, and he had as much dignity as ten
cats. Jims' fingers tingled to stroke him. Jims had never been allowed
to have even a kitten because Aunt Augusta had a horror of cats. And
you cannot stroke gobblers!

The Very Handsome Cat came through the rose garden paths on his
beautiful paws, ambled daintily around the rockery, and sat down in a
shady spot under a pine tree, right where Jims could see him, through
a gap in the little poplars. He looked straight up at Jims and winked.
At least, Jims always believed and declared he did. And that wink
said, or seemed to say, plainly:

"Be a sport. Come down here and play with me. A fig for your Aunt
Augusta!"

A wild, daring, absurd idea flashed into Jims' brain. Could he? He
could! He would! He knew it would be easy. He had thought it all out
many times, although until now he had never dreamed of really doing
it. To unhook the window and swing it open, to step out on the pine
bough and from it to another that hung over the wall and dropped
nearly to the ground, to spring from it to the velvet sward under the
poplars--why, it was all the work of a minute. With a careful,
repressed whoop Jims ran towards the Very Handsome Cat.

The cat rose and retreated in deliberate haste; Jims ran after him.
The cat dodged through the rose paths and eluded Jims' eager hands,
just keeping tantalizingly out of reach. Jims had forgotten everything
except that he must catch the cat. He was full of a fearful joy, with
an elfin delight running through it. He had escaped from the blue room
and its ghosts; he was in his Garden of Spices; he had got the better
of mean old Aunt Augusta. But he _must_ catch the cat.

The cat ran over the lawn and Jims pursued it through the green gloom
of the thickly clustering trees. Beyond them came a pool of sunshine
in which the old stone house basked like a huge grey cat itself. More
garden was before it and beyond it, wonderful with blossom. Under a
huge spreading beech tree in the centre of it was a little tea table;
sitting by the table reading was a lady in a black dress.

The cat, having lured Jims to where he wanted him, sat down and began
to lick his paws. He was quite willing to be caught now; but Jims had
no longer any idea of catching him. He stood very still, looking at
the lady. She did not see him then and Jims could only see her
profile, which he thought very beautiful. She had wonderful ropes of
blue-black hair wound around her head. She looked