plague you to take me out for exercise, having 

 my own irregular hours for taking the air by 

 myself. Sometimes I will follow you round 

 the garden, but never slavishly, for little 

 moving things attract me and odds and ends 

 of toilet have to be' performed. But I am at 

 my best inside your room." And in this the 

 cat is right. Outside, no doubt, she may have 

 an opportunity to display her courage. Some 

 blundering bully of a dog may see her, and 

 imagining a facile prey or building hope upon 

 the supposed imminence of her swift retreat, 

 he makes at her in a sudden onset. Then 

 she, surprised, but not discomfited, awaits his 

 coming, her lips drawn back, her eyes gleam- 

 ing defiance, her ears flattened down, and her 

 body tense. He, as he rushes, beholds her 

 standing fast, and at the last he leaps aside to 

 right or left, either pretending that there is 

 no cat or trying to persuade others that some 

 pressing business, newly discovered, has drawn 

 him off his direcl: course. And in another 

 moment the cat is up a tree, hurling satire 

 40 



