II
CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE
THE last week has been an arduous one; I have had to chaperon Pasht.
Pasht has experienced her first proposal. I suppose it is no wonder, considering her age, that she was flattered; but I could wish that she had fixed her affections on anyone less vulgar and under-bred.
This was how I found it out. Pasht had been for many days very eager to go into the garden. One morning we were playing croquet on the lawn, and I paid no attention to the kitten, until suddenly I looked up to see her lying on the path, her long thick hair fluffed out, her sweet mouse-coloured cat’s visage resting on the edge of the grass, her little chin rubbing against it, and her long squirrel tail lazily sweeping and thumping the gravel.
At first I thought it was only flirtatiousness in general, an attempt to captivate the universe at large, when lo! out of the laurels opposite to her flashed an ordinary, vulgar, ill-bred, short-haired tabby cat, who stood there for a moment, looked at me and disappeared.
