till now. Do you happen to know what this gift you are tossing aside
so nonchalantly would have cost if it hadn't been given me by a dear
friend? A cool two hundred, that's all. It seems to me you might try
to get over your prejudices, especially when I tell you that I am very
fond of cats and like to see them around."

Dicky's voice held a note of appeal, but I chose to ignore it. My
particular little devil must have sat at my elbow.

"I am sorry," I said coldly, "but really, I do not see why it is any
more incumbent on me to try to overcome my very real aversion to cats
than it is for you to try to do without their society."

"Very well," Dicky exclaimed angrily, turning toward the door. "If you
feel that way about it, there is nothing more to be said."

Then Dicky slammed the living room door behind him to emphasize his
words, went down the hall, slammed the apartment door and ran down the
steps.

Back in the living room, huddled up in the big chair which is the
chief pride of the woman who rents us the furnished apartment, I sat,
as angry as Dicky, and heartsick besides. Our first quarrel had come!

But the cat remained. What was I to do with her? There is no cure for
a quarrel like loneliness and reflection. Dicky had not been gone a
half-hour after our disagreement over the cat before I was wondering
how we both could have been so silly.

I thought it out carefully. I could see that Dicky was accustomed to