218 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



ventured to call upon her. In her own domain she 

 brooked no intrusion. If over the garden wall two 

 little ears were raised, two little eyes peered fur- 

 tively ; if a rustle in the boughs, a trembling of the 

 ivy leavesv awakened her suspicion, she sprang at 

 the stranger like a young Fury, her fur bristling 

 to the point of her tail. It was impossible to hold 

 her back, and presently we who listened would hear 

 the sound of scuffling, a fall, and lamentable cries." 

 A wayward, spoiled, capricious beauty was Mou- 

 moutte Blanche, loving her master after the fashion 

 of her race, steadfastly but without docility, and 

 extending some portion of her careless regard to 

 other members of the family. For five years she 

 reigned without a rival. For five years M. Loti 

 came and went, as the fortunes of war called him 

 to sea or permitted his return ; and ever she was 

 the first to welcome him under the roof she deemed 

 her own. Then came a day when, three thousand 

 miles from France, fate flung across his path the 

 strange and bizarre little creature known to us as 

 Moumoutte Chinoise, and he made swift surrender 

 of his affections. 



" Men were deceivers ever ; 

 One foot in sea, and one on shore, 

 To one cat constant never." 



The new favourite — like so many favourites — 

 was meanly born, poor and wretched. She was 



