"It's really most extraordinary," said one lady.
"And Toots never goes to strangers as a rule," added my mistress.
Everybody is proud of being exceptionally favoured. It was this last stroke, I am convinced, that rubbed him the right way. A gratified blandness pervaded his countenance. He made no further attempts to dislodge me, and I settled myself into the angles of his shoulder and affected to go to sleep.
"What are you going to do with him?" he asked, crossing one long leg over the other with a convulsive abruptness very trying to my balance, and to the strength of the arm-chair.
Both the ladies began to mew. They were so sorry to leave me behind, but it was quite impossible to take me. They couldn't bear to think of my being unhappy, and didn't know where in the world to find me a home.
"I wish you would take him!" said my mistress.
I listened breathlessly for the gentleman's reply.
"Pets are not in the least in my line," he said. "I am a bachelor, you know, of very tidy habits. I dislike trouble, and have a rooted objection to encumbrances."
"We hear you have a pet mouse, though," said my mistress. He laughed awkwardly.
"My dear young lady, I never said that my practice always squared with my principles. Helpless and troublesome creatures have sometimes an insinuating way with them, which forms an additional reason for avoiding them, especially if one is weak-minded. And——"