190 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



more frequently occupied by cats than by the august 

 author of " Les Miserables." If he were well in- 

 clined to throne himself, so indeed were they ; and 

 the superior nature of their claims was readily 

 granted by the man in whom their empire kept 

 alive the saving grace of modesty. " When I was 

 young," says M. Champfleury, " I had the honour 

 of being received by Victor Hugo in a room with 

 a big red dais, on which reposed a cat who seemed 

 to await the homage of visitors. He had a huge 

 ruff of white fur like a Chancellor's tippet, his 

 whiskers resembled those of a Hungarian Magyar, 

 and when he advanced in a stately manner, his 

 brilliant eyes fixed full upon my face, I perceived 

 that he had modelled himself on the poet, and was 

 reflecting the majestic thoughts that seemed to fill 

 the chamber." 



Did the cat model himself on the poet, or the 

 poet on the cat? When "each seemed either," it 

 was a difficult matter to decide. 



About the time that Victor Hugo was gathering 

 his first rich crop of laurels, a certain M. Raton — 

 unknown to fame — published in Paris a very seri- 

 ous little treatise, " Sur 1' Education du Chat Domes- 

 tique," preceded by " Son Histoire Philosophique 

 et Politique," and followed by an elaborate "Traite- 

 ment de ses Maladies." It is a book of amazing 

 dulness. M. Raton did not love cats. How could 



