70 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



less exactitude. The independence of character, 

 the coldness of heart, the alternations of playful- 

 ness and reserve, the courteous but temperate 

 regard, granted on terms of absolute equality, — 

 these things were understood and respected by one 

 too wisely kind for intolerance. "Thus freely 

 speaketh Montaigne concerning cats," and there is 

 little to add to his words. The world is now so old 

 that everything we would like to say has been said 

 long ago by those who first had the opportunity. 



Two proofs we find of Pussy's rapid progress in 

 esteem. The French country houses built between 

 the middle of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 

 turies were all furnished with " chati^res," little 

 openings cut in the doors for the accommodation of 

 the cat, who wandered in and out of the great chill 

 tapestried rooms as her restless fancy prompted 

 her. These chatieres indicate a careful study of 

 her convenience, yet, by the close of the seven- 

 teenth century, they had wholly disappeared ; — a 

 circumstance, says M. Havard, which points to but 

 one conclusion. In her hundred years of pampered 

 domesticity, the cat had accustomed mankind to 

 wait upon her pleasure. There was no longer any 

 need of creeping through a hole. If she wanted 

 to come in or go out, — and cats are perpetually 

 wanting to do one or the other, — somebody was 

 always ready to get up and open the door. 



