“And do you, Lady Blanche, promise to nurse and lick this cat if he gets ill, to keep his house, and cook his mice and his catnip as he likes them, and to love him always, and not to spit at him, or scratch him ever, but be a good wife until you die?”
“I promise,” mewed Lady Blanche so faintly that Tommy Traddles had to bend down to hear whether she said: “I promise,” or “I prefer mice.”
But as her response was the right one, Tommy Traddles straightened himself and said, turning to the audience: “I now marry these cats! Lady Blanche, give Ods Bobs your paw to hold; Ods Bobs, take Lady Blanche’s hand. You are now cat and cat, cat and wife. Keep your promises and be happy for life.”
The Purrers purred together the gay tune into which ’Clipsy’s fiddle at once broke, and the procession left the hall as it had entered it, only in retiring Nugget did not walk backward, nor behind his sisters, but strutted out ahead of the bride and groom, and of the bridesmaids, as proud as Ods Bobs himself.
“I’m afraid we ought to start for home,” said Rob, regretfully, as the Purrers prepared to escort the bridal party to the newest house in town, which, fortunately, had not been rented, and so was ready for their use.
“And take Ban-Ban and Kiku-san?” cried a Purrer. All the cats suddenly remembered their sorrow, which the events of the past few hours had made them almost forget.
“Isn’t it strange—and nice—that Ods Bobs and Lady Blanche have come on the very day we go, and that they are white and Maltese, like Bannie and Kiku?” hinted Lois, comfortingly.
“There are no friends like old friends; there can be but one Ban-Ban and Kiku-san,” mewed the cats in chorus.
“So there can’t,” agreed Rob, heartily. “But we’re going to bring this one Ban and Kiku every week to see you. Don’t you think we ought to have just one cat, when we love all cats so much? And don’t you think it ought to be this one, one for each of us, that we took care of and loved from the time they were kittens?”
“Oh, it’s all right, Rob, it’s all right,” cried the cats, eagerly, afraid Rob was offended. “We owe you even our best Purrer and our Founder—but we are sorry enough to let them go.”