said the letter. "Regarding a certain cat sent to your
address through our company by Hibbert & Jones of this city, while
advising you of our entire freedom from responsibility in the matter,
all animals being accepted by us at owner's risk only, we beg to make
the following communication: The cat is now in storage at our express
office in Westcote, and is sick. A letter from our agent there leads us
to believe that the cat may not receive the best of attention at his
hands. In order that it may be properly fed and cared for we would
suggest that you accept the cat from our hands, under protest if you
wish, until you can arrange with Messrs. Hibbert & Jones as to the
ownership. In asking you to take the cat in this way we have no other
object in view than to stop the charges for storage and care, which are
accumulating, and to make sure that the cat is receiving good attention.
We might say, however, that Hibbert & Jones assure us that the cat is
your property, and therefore, until we have assurance to the contrary,
we must look to you for all charges for transportation, storage, and
care accruing while the cat is left with us. Yours very truly."

When she had read the letter Mrs. Warman's emotions were extremely
mixed. She felt an undying anger toward the express company; she felt an
entirely different and more personal anger toward the firm of Hibbert &
Jones; but above all she felt a great surprise regarding the cat. If
ever she had seen a cat that she thought was a thoroughly dead cat this
was the cat. She had had many cats in her day, and she had always
thought she knew a dead cat when she saw one, and now this dead cat was
alive--ailing, perhaps, but alive. The more she considered it, the less
likely it seemed to her that she could have been mistaken about the
deadness of that cat. It had been offered to her twice. The first time
she saw it she knew it was dead, and the second time she saw it she knew
it was, if anything, more dead than it had been the first time. The
conclusion was obvious. A cat had been sent to her in a box. She had
refused to receive a dead cat, and the expressmen had taken the box away
again. Now there was a live, but sick, cat in the box. She had her
opinion of expressmen, express companies, and especially of the firm of
Hibbert & Jones. This full opinion she sent to Hibbert & Jones by the
next mail.

The next morning Flannery was feeling fine. He whistled as he went to
the nine--twenty tr