"Only the cat!" repeated my uncle. "What can you mean?"
"Oh, nothing—nothing," again said the young lady, growing pale and red by turns, and showing that there was something or other which annoyed her excessively.
Of course, the young husband, when he saw his wife's agitation, became alarmed.
He also asked the natural question, "What is the matter, dearest?" and received for an answer, "Nothing, only the cat."
"Have you seen a cat in the room, my dear?" he asked.
"Oh, no, no, but I feel it is here, I know it is here, indeed it is," exclaimed the young lady in a tone of alarm.
This, of course, made the guests look under the table, and the servants hunt behind the curtains and the side-board, and in every other possible place; but no cat could be seen. Some of the guests, I believe, thought the young lady was out of her wits, or at all events, very fanciful.
The husband, however, explained briefly that his young wife, had, from her infancy, a natural repugnance to cats, and that she shuddered even if one came near her. Still, as no cat was to be found, he supposed that she must have been affected by some other cause.
She still insisted that a cat, and nothing but a cat was in the room, and at last she fell, almost fainting into her husband's arms.