amuse you. Her spirits are calm rather than 

 high, and boisterous fun has no attraction for 

 her. It seems to her that she ought to guard 

 your household gods (being herself one of 

 them) in silence rather than with a tempestu- 

 ous vigilance. Yet her sympathy and her 

 friendship never fail those in whom she has 

 learnt to place her confidence, and her re- 

 sponse to affection is quick and warm and 

 sincere. She is something of a conservative 

 and suspects change. Introduce a new piece 

 of furniture into her room, and she must in- 

 vestigate it from top to bottom and on all sides 

 before she can even pretend to be reconciled 

 to it. Open a cupboard or pull out a drawer, 

 and her serenity disappears. She has to ex- 

 plore the innermost recesses of this new ap- 

 pearance delicately but thoroughly. So it 

 was with Cowper's cat: 



A drawer impending o'er the rest, 

 Half-open in the topmost chest, 

 Of depth enough, and none to spare, 

 Invited her to slumber there. 

 45 s The 



