“Oh, delicious things,” I replied; “cream, and nice little bits of fish, and cheese, and meat just as tender as possible, and French bread and—I forget the other things.”
“If that is all you have not quite as much of a variety as you had here,” remarked Serena loftily.
The tears came in my eyes. If I had not been such a bad little kitten perhaps Serena would have thought more of me.
“Go kiss her,” whispered my mother in her sweet, rough voice.
That voice always overcomes me. It is hoarse, because she has always a sore throat, caught from being out-of-doors so much in the cold.
I stepped firmly across Jimmy Dory to the place where Serena lay lashing her tail in the sunshine. Then I bent over her, and licked one of her pretty paws.
That pleased her. Serena would like to be a queen of cats. She didn't say a word. She didn't speak of forgiving me for going away, or coming to see me, but she lay and looked at the spot I had licked. That meant that she did really forgive me. Serena knew I loved her, but she always said I made her nervous.
“Come, have a wrestle,” exclaimed Jimmy Dory, and he bit my tail to make me spring after him. We were having a glorious rough and tumble game, when Mrs. Darley and Mary came into the room. My first impulse was to run to Mary, and I did.
She was in an ecstasy. “Why, she likes me, the dear little creature!” she said catching me up. “She wants to go home with me. I was afraid that she would want to stay with her parents.”
I looked back at them. I wanted to stay, and yet I didn't. I had got out into the world, and it was interesting.