Later I came into the possession of a white specimen all my own. He
lived chiefly in the outside breast pocket of my jacket, in company
with my handkerchief, so that glancing down I could generally see his
little pink eyes gleaming up at me, except on very cold days, when it
would be only his tail that I could see; and when I felt miserable,
somehow he would know it, and, swarming up, push his little cold snout
against my ear. He died just so, clinging round my neck; and from
many of my fellow-men and women have I parted with less pain. It
sounds callous to say so; but, after all, our feelings are not under
our own control; and I have never been able to understand the use of
pretending to emotions one has not. All this, however, comes later.
Let me return now to my fairy kitten.

I heard its cry of pain from afar, and instinctively hastened my
steps. Three or four times I heard it again, and at each call I ran
faster, till, breathless, I arrived upon the scene, the opening of a
narrow court, leading out of a by-street. At first I saw nothing but
the backs of a small mob of urchins. Then from the centre of them
came another wailing appeal for help, and without waiting for any
invitation, I pushed my way into the group.

What I saw was Hecuba to me--gave me the motive and the cue for
passion, transformed me from the dull and muddy-mettled little
John-a-dreams I had been into a small, blind Fury. Pale Thought, that
mental emetic, banished from my system, I became the healthy,
unreasoning animal, and acted as such.

From my methods, I frankly admit, science was absent. In simple,
primitive fashion that would have charmed a Darwinian disciple to
observe, I "went for" the whole crowd. To employ the expressive idiom