before she went to the shop, she left for her a little bit of milk in
a bowl.

And like her gentle mistress the little cat had sad, kind eyes. She
warmed herself on the window-sill in the sun beside a pot of basil.
Sometimes she licked her little paw, and used it as a brush on the
short fur of her head. Sometimes she played with a mouse.

One day the cat and the mistress both found themselves pregnant,
the one by a handsome fellow who deserted her, and the other by a
beautiful tom-cat who also went his way.

But there was this difference. The poor girl became ill, very ill,
and passed her days sobbing. The little cat made for herself a kind of
joyous cradling-place in the sun where it shone upon her white, drolly
inflated abdomen.

The cat's lover had come later than the girl's. So things happened
that they were both confined at the same time.

One day the little working-girl received a letter from the handsome
fellow who had deserted her. He sent her twenty-five francs, and spoke
of his generosity to her. She bought charcoal, a burner, and a sou's
worth of matches. Then she killed herself.

When she had entered heaven, which a young priest had at first tried
to prevent, the dainty and delicate creature trembled because that she
was pregnant and that the _Bon Dieu_ would condemn her.

But the _Bon Dieu_ said to her: