CALVIN: A STUDY OF CHARACTER. 189 



never went whining about. He would sit 

 for hours at a closed window, when he de- 

 sired to enter, without a murmur, and when 

 it was opened he never admitted that he had 

 been impatient by "bolting" in. Though 

 speech he had not, and the unpleasant kind 

 of utterance given to his race he would not 

 use, he had a mighty power of purr to ex- 

 press his measureless content with congenial 

 society. There was in him a musical organ 

 with stops of varied power and expression, 

 upon which I have no doubt he could have 

 performed Scarlatti's celebrated cat's-fugue. 

 Whether Calvin died of old age, or was 

 carried off by one of the diseases incident to 

 youth, it is impossible to say ; for his de- 

 parture was as quiet as his advent was mys- 

 terious. I only know that he appeared to 

 us in this world in his perfect stature and 

 beauty, and that after a time, like Lohen- 

 grin, he withdrew. In his illness there was 

 nothing more to be regretted than in all his 

 blameless life. I suppose there never was an 

 illness that had more of dignity and sweet- 



