and was
wandering sadly round the room in search of its old friends and
relations. It seemed likely to make one more subject for dispute at
Haughton Park, where from the time Philippa got up till she went to bed,
there was already no end to the wrangling. Confused by finding itself
in a strange land where nothing familiar met its eye, it at last took
refuge under a book-case, and when Philippa looked round, it was nowhere
to be seen.

"Oh, my darling little kitten is lost!" she exclaimed.

Miss Mervyn, who did not like cats or any other animals, would not have
been sorry if this had been the case, but Philippa was preparing to shed
a torrent of tears, and this must be avoided at any cost.

"Hush, my dear," she said, folding her gown closely round her; "we will
find it. It cannot have gone far."

Cats, in Miss Mervyn's experience, were shy treacherous things which
always hid themselves, and jumped out from unexpected places. So she
now proceeded cautiously round the room, peeping into dark corners and
behind curtains, as if some dangerous animal were lurking there. There
was no place too small or too unlikely that she did not thoroughly
examine, but it was Philippa who at last caught sight of a pair of green
eyes gleaming in the darkness under the book-case.

"There it is!" she cried, and casting herself flat on the floor, she
stretched out her arm and dragged it out by one leg. But she did not
hold it long, for the white kitten, frightened, and quite unused to such
rough treatment, put out its sharp little claws to defend itself.

"Oh!" screamed Philippa at the top of her voice. She flung the kitten
from her, and stretched out her arm piteously; on it there was a long
scratch, just beginning to bleed a little.

"The nasty, spiteful thing!" exclaimed Miss Mervyn. "My darling
Philippa! what will your mother say? Come, my love, we will bathe it,
and it will soon be better, and the savage little kitten shall be sent
away."

But Philippa would not have her arm bathed, and the kitten should not be
sent away. She would show Dennis and Maisie what a bad scratch it was,
and what a cross kitten they had sent her for a present, and meantime
she would stand and sob.

"We'll ask them to take it back to Fieldside, won't we?" said Miss
Mervyn soothingly; "we shall be glad to get rid of it."

The more Miss Mervyn suggested this, the more determined Philippa was to
keep it. She even began to make excuses for it b