OUR SENTIMENTAL GARDEN 



just sat with his head on his hand, and sighed. Really 



Miss Marie, I don't know when we've felt so bad/' 



It will be seen that Mr. and Mrs. Adam have the right 



feeling towards " little sister cat and little brother dog/' as 



St. Francis of Assisi would have called them. This suits 



us very well, and oddly enough, Villino Loki is a kind of 

 paradise for things of fur and feather. Cat and dog live in 

 a strange harmony. To see Loki kiss Bunny, or Bunny clasp 

 Arabella round the neck, is as pleasing a sight as you could 

 imagine. And if Kitty- Wee occasionally boxes Loki with 

 a kind of delicate compactness, it is with her claws in. As 

 for Juvenal, the butler, whose pantry is full of singing birds, 

 no sense of etiquette will restrain him from public blandish- 

 ments when Loki is on the scene. George, the footman, 

 can be heard addressing himLoki in back passages, as 

 " My loved one ! " And Tom, the old long-haired English 

 cat, rules the kitchen. 



Tom has reached the patriarchal age of eighteen years, and 

 is cherished by the master of the Villino. He has had many 

 vicissitudes. He was stung by an adder during our very 

 first summer, years ago, on these moors, and lay for a day 

 in a coma with one paw swollen the size of a child's arm, 

 to be saved by doses of brandy and milk. A few years 

 later he was caught in a trap. How he got free no one 

 14 



