Highboy brightened a little.
"Do you think we dare?" he said, "Suppose we should meet the cat."
"I'm not afraid of the cat," Hortense declared.
"And then there's the other one," said Highboy. "He's worse still. He's round, and bright, and hard, with sharp points all over—a terrible fellow."
"Is he the 'ha'nt,' as Aunt Esmerelda calls it?" Hortense asked.
Highboy knew nothing about that. He was only sure that the cat, Jeremiah, and his prickly companion were up to all manner of tricks and were best let alone.
Hortense, on second thought, did not wholly relish the idea of going downstairs with Highboy, but she had made the offer and so she said, "Come on, we'll go now, for I mustn't stay up too late."
Highboy stepped out of his wooden house. He looked so funny in his knee trousers and broad white collar with its big bow tie, exactly like a great overgrown boy, that Hortense laughed out loud.
"If you laugh at me, I won't go," said Highboy in a mournful voice.
"I beg your pardon," said Hortense. "It was rude of me. But you should wear long trousers you know! You are too big to wear such things as these."