"You see what you've done! It's gone into the rotunda, where everybody
is."

Harding looked at him critically.

"You seem sober. What ever possessed you to get yourself up like an
Italian opera villain and go round the town with a wild beast under
your arm?"

"I'll tell you later," Blake laughed. "What we have to do now is to
catch the thing."

"It's time," drawled Harding. "The circus is beginning."

Men's laughter and women's shrieks rose from the rotunda. Somebody
shouted orders in French, there was a patter of running feet, and then
a crash as of chairs being overturned. Blake sprang in, and Harding
followed, divided between amusement and impatience. They saw an
animated scene. Two porters were chasing the bobcat, which now and
then turned upon them savagely, while several waiters, keeping at a
judicious distance, tried to frighten it into a corner by flourishing
their napkins. Women fled out of the creature's way, men hastily moved
chairs and tables to give the pursuers room, and some of the more
energetic joined in the chase. At one end of the room, Mrs. Keith
stood angrily giving instructions which nobody attended to. Millicent,
standing near her, looked hot and unhappy, but for all that her eyes
twinkled when a waiter, colliding with a chair, went down with a crash
and the bobcat sped away from him in a series of awkward jumps.