The yard, too, beneath him, was now alive with the creeping movements of
dark forms all stealthily drawing towards the porch with the glass
doors. They kept so closely to the wall that he could not determine
their actual shape, but when he saw that they passed on to the great
congregation that was gathering in the hall, he understood that these
were the creatures whose leaping shadows he had first seen reflected in
the windowpanes opposite. They were coming from all parts of the town,
reaching the appointed meeting-place across the roofs and tiles, and
springing from level to level till they came to the yard.

Then a new sound caught his ear, and he saw that the windows all about
him were being softly opened, and that to each window came a face. A
moment later figures began dropping hurriedly down into the yard. And
these figures, as they lowered themselves down from the windows, were
human, he saw; but once safely in the yard they fell upon all fours and
changed in the swiftest possible second into--cats--huge, silent cats.
They ran in streams to join the main body in the hall beyond.

So, after all, the rooms in the house had not been empty and unoccupied.

Moreover, what he saw no longer filled him with amazement. For he
remembered it all. It was familiar. It had all happened before just so,
hundreds of times, and he himself had taken part in it and known the
wild madness of it all. The outline of the old building changed, the
yard grew larger, and he seemed to be staring down upon it from a much
greater height through smoky vapours. And, as he looked, half
remembering, the old pains of long ago, fierce and sweet, furiously
assailed him, and the blood stirred horribly as he heard the Call of the
Dance again in his heart and tasted the ancient magic of Ilsé whirling