Mrs. Horton’s maid, Alice, came home
With the keys. She left the window open
When she went to the corner for food.
I took unfair advantage—thus experience has taught me—
Climbed in at the first opportunity.
I hid in her bedroom—the only door that was open.
After all I had suffered
Perhaps Jack would come back
And then my troubles be over.
For the first time in months
I slept without fear and in comfort....
It must have been after midnight
When Old Horton came in. It was pitch dark
So he couldn’t see me. It gave me uncanny pleasure
To follow him. He stole up to Alice’s room
As if a hundred were watching. The door remained
Gaping to the empty house and—me.
Presently Alice screamed and the harrowing sound
Frightens me even now.
Horton went back to his room
And the house resumed its stillness.
I sat on the floor by his bed
Lulled by his heavy breathing....
Out of the darkness there gleamed
A flash from the crack of a pistol.
Alice was fully dressed and quietly turned on her heel;
Left the house by the basement; walked to the corner
And river; threw something deep in its water; then back
To the house where she’d killed him—
Leaving the front door open.... I followed her up to her room
Where she undressed and went back to bed....
Dead in his they found Horton,
And on his tomb they inscribed:
“A Loving Father and Devoted Husband.”
TWELFTH CATERWAUL
I’ve been sitting in the gutter and wondering—
Strange dreams come to me in strange places—
The glare of approaching motor
Bewildered my thoughts still more.
I saw stranger things in the shadows
Than the glow of the lights revealed.
And the deepest shadows
Close behind the gleaming arcs of the motor
Showed heads that were snuggled close.
Edith Horton was one
And Brough—who is married—the other.
No matter how dark the night its shame is refulgent
To Heaven.
The chain of my reverie was broken
As the lash will draw blood from the purest....
And yet I am only a cat that was nearly
Run over!
THIRTEENTH CATERWAUL
Jack Horton has taken me back—
His father’s boots are now mouldy.
Edith does charity work and teaches in
Sunday-school. Brough is the superintendent....
The mortgage on Mallory’s house
Was foreclosed on Saturday morning.
Mallory, wife and six children
Were sitting out on the street,
Their shabby trappings about them....
A syndicate bought the house
From Brough—his profit was ten thousand dollars.
Brough is rolling in wealth.
But Mallory now and Brough
Will seem to me much more alike:
Neither will pay his bills.
... But Jack is kind to me
And Brough’s not the milk
That I drink!
