"Good Lord!" I gasped. "What is it?"
"Oh!" she said. "It's—that nasty little monkey which came this afternoon. Oh—h!"
As she rushed past me I saw a small, active brown body leap on to the dresser, seize a chunk of bread in its paws and then drop to the floor again, with Gran'pa and Molly in wild pursuit.
[CHAPTER II]
GRAN'PA BUYS A MONKEY
As Nanny shot past me into the dining-room and slammed the door behind her, I strode forward into the kitchen. There followed a scene I shall never forget.
Molly was standing on a chair, shouting and laughing. Gran'pa was on his hands and knees, fishing about under the table and making peculiar little coaxing noises; and in the centre of the room was the cat, with arched back and erect and angry-looking tail.
"Gran'pa!" I shouted—at the top of my voice.
He withdrew his head from beneath the tablecloth, his long, picturesque white beard trailing grotesquely on the polished linoleum, and his whole attitude and appearance as near to the monkey kingdom as ever I had seen them.
"What in Heaven's name do you think you are doing?" I bellowed.