“I wish I had a cat,” he said, by way of starting a new topic.
“Well, why haven’t you a cat? Why haven’t you a dozen cats if you want them?”
“I asked Aunty Lora could I have a cat, and she said: ‘Certainly not, cats are—cats are——”
“Unhygienic?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s what your Aunt Lora might think a cat was. Or did she say pestilential?”
“I don’t amember.”
“But she wouldn’t let you have one?”
“Mamie said a cat might scratch me.”
“Well, you wouldn’t mind that?” said Kirk anxiously.