2 2 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



a quiet, respectful dignity: desirous of pleasing, yet 

 quite at her ease. 



Across the back of the sofa there lies a rug of 

 some beautiful fur which catches the eye, but which 

 at first the visitor cannot identify. Its stripes are 

 familiar, and not unlike the tiger's, but the colour is 

 not that of the forest tyrant. She explains that this 

 rug comes within her special sphere. It is a carriage- 

 rug of cat-skin ; the skins carefully selected to match 

 exactly, and cured and prepared in the same way as 

 other more famous furs. They have only just been 

 sewn together, and the rug is now spread on the sofa 

 to dry. She has made rugs, she will tell you, entirely 

 of black cat skins, and very handsome they looked ; 

 but not equal to this, which is wholly of the tabby. 

 Certainly the gloss and stripe, the soft warmth and 

 feel to the hand, seem to rival many foreign and 

 costly importations. Besides carriage-rugs, the game- 

 keeper's wife has made others for the feet — some 

 many-coloured, like Joseph's coat. 



All the cats to which these skins belonged were 

 shot or caught in the traps set for vermin by her 

 husband and his assistants. The majority were wild 

 — that is, had taken up their residence in the woods, 

 reverting to their natural state, and causing great 

 havoc among the game. Feasting like this and in 



