same time. Now wait a minute till I come back."

She went into an inner room, and closed the door behind her. In five
minutes it opened again. She appeared in a dressing gown and with
her feet in slippers. Her fine hair fell heavily about her
shoulders; in her arms she held a beautiful black cat, with white
throat and paws.

"This is my child. Don't you admire him? Shake hands, Grim."

"Why Grim?"

"It's short for Grimalkin. the name of a cat in a hook of fairy
tales I used to be fond of reading. Don't you think he's got a
beautiful face, and a good deal more intelligent than some people we
could mention? I picked him up on our door-step, two months ago. Oh,
you never saw such a wretched little object, dripping with rain, and
with such a poor starved little face, and bones almost coming
through the skin. He looked up at me, and begged me as plain as
plain could be to have pity on him and help him; didn't you, Grimmy?
And so I brought him upstairs, and made him comfortable, and now we
shall never part.--Do you like animals?"

"Yes."

The door of the room suddenly opened, and there sprang in a
fresh-coloured young girl in hat and jacket, short, plump, pretty,
and looking about seventeen. She started back on seeing that the
room was occupied.