"CAT'S EYES"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22389, 8 April 1936, Page 7

"CAT'S EYES"

BT LUCIE WTNN

" The Elms, April 4th. " Dear Muffy,—l am dying to know if you arrived safely. I know mistress •ent master a telegram saying 'All's ,well,' but though he seems quite satisfied. somehow I feel uneasy. My sixth sense tells me something is wrong. " Toby has found a dog who goes to Sunnyside every Saturday on a lorry and comes back Mondays, and he is willing to deliver any letters for a crust or a cast-off bone. Very reasonable, I think. So, my dear, do send me all the news by return. Foolish of me to worry, I,know, but I suppose it is just toy nature.

" t must confess I felt quite envious ■when'l saw you in your comfy basket beside mistress on the car seat. I thought of all the stories that mother used to tell us of her kitten days in £he country—about the fat, soft field mice, and the thrilling frog hunts, and the larks' nests right on the ground and full of juicy young birds.

"But there! When we were kittens didn t mother say you would be the lucky one because you were black? "It seems dreadfully quiet here with mistress away. Master notices it, I am sure. He walks about in his studio, and whistles a little, and lights his pipe and paints for a while, and then sighs and lays down his brushes. " To-day he said to me: 'We couldn't do without her, could we, Tibby? Life wouldn't be worth living. 1 Jtope she gets homesick and comes back soon.'

Ihe old house seems dark and dreary without her little feet running up And down the stairs, and her sunny laughter waking all the room.'

It must have been dull enough before the master married,' answered ■Ruby, blowing on the silver as she polished it.

" 'Aye, it was a good day for the old house when he brought home his bride,' said took. 'And for him, too. He has gone ahead with his painting by leaps and bounds since then, and is fair to becoming famous. Though I must confess Joy heart - fcank when I ieard. he was

A SHORT STORY

(COPYRIGHT)

marrying an actress. I had in mind nomeone clever and hard, here to-day, away to-morrow, with never a thought for anyone but herself, and not the woman he needed. But as soon as I sot eyes on her —her sweetness, her gentleness. and her loveliness—l knew everything would be all right.' "it was a long speech for cook and she was so out of breath when she had finished that she couldn't scold me for taking a hurried lick at the drop of crcain on the spout of the jug standing 011 the windowsill.

" Toby says lie can hear the lorry coming down the street. " In haste.—T." " The Elms, April 11th. " Dear Muffy,—Well 1 was right. I knew something dreadful had happened. And yet—and yet, I can't believe mistress js disfigured for life, that her lovely face will be forever scarred.

"And all because of a stupid dog I How like her to swerve the car into the ditch to avoid the creature, and how like her to insist on sending that telegram 'All's well,' so that master would not be worried while he was working on his important picture. (J hough between you and me it is very poor—a few clouds, a bit of sea and "a boat, all very wet and uncomfortable.) I wish I could come and sit by mistress and comfort her. Her heart must have broke when she heard those foolish women talking in the garden. " 1 keep thinking about it. I can picture it all. 1 see mistress lying in bed in the little room with the sloping ceiling and rose patterned wallpaper, and you curled up beside her on the snowy counterpane. " Her face is bandaged and her little white hands are patient and still. The window isi open, the sounds of evening drifting in, and the voices of two women gossiping along the gardon paths. As one passes close to the window her words come clearly, though she lowers her voice.

" 'And the doctor told us,' she says, 'that there will always be an ugly scar down one side of her face. And her so pretty, too!'

And I see my dear mistress turn dark eyes to the window, and lie tense with her small hands clenched. I hear her weeping through the long quiet night, and at dawn her bitter cry: " Muffy, Muffy, what can I do? He loved my beauty so much. Ho always said it was his inspiration—a lamp to

his art. How can I go back to him all scarred and horrible and ugly when he depended on my loveliness Y Muffy. Muffy, tell me what to do. Help mo. "But how can you help her, little sister, except by purring loudly and prodding your paws on the counterpart and showing her all your love in your yellow eyes. "I can hear, master, now, in the hall turning over the letters there, searching vainly for one that never comes, and I cannot see to write any more. "Your loving Tibby." "The Elms, April 18th. "Dear Muffy,—Excuse my dreadful writing, but I am so excited my whiskers keep getting in the way. "Can you guess my news? Yes, my dear, seven! Quito a record for me, isn't it! All beautifully strong, too, and one just like mother to the best last tabby stripe. Oh! how I wish you Wcro here to help me. The washing alone is one cat's work.

"I have them snug and safe against the chimney under the house where nobody can reach them. Cook was suspicious and she sent Ruby to look. But Rub3 T , who steals the cream and licks her fingers when sho helps with tho cooking, got stuck and Cook had to pull her out by the heels. "Then they told Master, and ho peered under and shook his head.

" 'She's done us brown this time, Cook,' ho chuckled, and went away. "1 thought ho would bo angry with me later, when I slipped out. But ho seemed to have forgotten. He was watching the postman go up the street and when I rubbed against his log he only sighed sharply. " 'Three weeks,' ho said. 'Three weeksj Tibby, and not a letter. She's having a good time pussy, and she's forgotten us.'

"I tried to tell him everything about the accident, but ho didn't seem to understand. " 'Go and ask Cook,' he said. 'She'll give you some milk.' "And I think perhaps I will. There's a world of comfort in a saucer of warm, fresh milk. "Yrs. affect., T." "The Elms, April 25th. "Dear Muffy,—Do write and tell mo what is going to happen. I am so much distressed and worried that I haven't event the heart to look after tho children properly, and Toby often sits with them and washes them. "Three days ago a letter came for Master. He was in the studio when Ruby brought it to him. He told her to put it on* the table and went on squeezing colours on to his pallette,

but as soon as she had gone, he dropped his colours and snatched up the letter. "Ho held it against his cheek a moment before he opened it, and then he unfolded it gently as if it might crumple to dust "I sat and watched unblinkingly while lie read it, for I wondered what Mistress had told him. Ho read it through once, twice, and a third time, and his face turned the same funny colour that Ruby's once became when I jumped up and laid a live mouse on her lap, "At last he screwed the letter up into a ball and threw it on to the Hoor, and I patted it with my paw. Ho looked at mo and gave a laugh that was something like a sob. " 'She hasn't any use for us, Tibby.' he said. 'She's going back to the stage. She had a good offer and she's sailing on the 25th. The 25th, Tibby, and that's the day after to-morrow. Ruby is to pack her things, and will wo please send them on, as she doesn't want to come down. And I am not to attempt to see her, because that wouldmean a scene and scenes arc so upsetting—add lines to 3 T our face and do no good at all. She's sorry if sho has disappointed us, but the stage was her first and her real love. And if we want to bo free, you .and I, Tibby, well, wo know what to do, and P.S., she is taking Muffy with her for luck. So Tibby, that's that. We've made fools of ourselves, and —and—•'

"Master covered his face with his hands and I saw his shoulders were shaking, though 1 don't think ho was laughing.

"I sat and stared and stared without moving a whisker. For I couldn't understand at all. For how could Mistress go on the stage when that accident had rohlied her of her beautv.

"Presently Master looked up and saw me watching him. " 'Get out, confound you,' he shouted, and lie picked up the jar in which lie stands his brushes, and threw it at me. It missed mo and knocked down the canvas on tho easel "When 1 looked back from tho window sill he was stamping on the picture and shouting strange words that unfortunately I have forgotten. "And these throe days since then have been black ones. "Master sits all the time in tho studio with his hands hanging between his knees, staring at nothing, doing nothing. And bis beautiful pictures lie about him, slashed and torn, and nobody dare tidy up. "Cook keeps crying and saying: 'The littlo hussy, the little hussy to do this to him'; and Ruby has all the cream because nobody els© wants it.

"Once R-üby said: 'I suppose he'll get a divorce.'

| " 'The sooner the better,' snapped Cook, and began to cry again. "Toby says if anyone brings a divorce into this house, he'll bite it, because seven kittens are enough worry on their own. "Mrs. T." "The Elms, May 2nd. "Dear Muffy,—They are sending for you to-morrow, but there are a few tilings that can't wait, that I simply must tell you. "Last night I was slipping round past the studio window after putting the babies to bed, when I saw a woman standing with her face pressed close to the window pane. "('an j-ou guess? It was Mistress. She was looking at Master where he sat pale and thin among his poor, torn canvasses. The tears were running down her cheeks, and sho had her little white hands clasped over her mouth so that Master would not hear her sobs.

"I was so overjoyed I couldn't even purr. I brushed against her but sho took no notice, and I began to feel worried, because I didn't like the way she was crying as if her heart were breaking. I stood up and patted her with my paw. That little trick always used to make her laugh, but she continued to sob, and would not even look at. mo.

"At last I wont to find Toby. JIo has a way of sitting up with his head cocked on ono side that makes every one exclaim, 'Oh the darling I' (though 1 think ho looks perfectly idiotic —only don't tell him I said so).

"I thought that Mistress might be amused if ho sat up for her. But as soon as I told him she was outside the studio, ho rushed round without waiting to hear more, barking in that thoughtless rowdy way of his.

"The noiso startled Master and ho turned to tho window before Mistress could shrink back. For one moment ho stared as if he had soon a ghost, and then he flung the window up and was out under tho stars with her in his arms beforo I quite knew what had happened. "She turned her face from his and tried to pull away, but he held her tightly. "Toby made so much noise at first that I couldn't hoar what they were saying, but they talked and talked, and sometimes they laughed and sometimes they sobbed. Then be drew her into the light from the studio and he looked at her a long time and at last lie kissed her tenderly. Toby rushed off on some madcap errand and I was

able to hear Master though he spoke softly.

" 'You will always be beautiful to me,' ho said. 'Besides it is not very dreadful. See, your hair pulled here, and a scarf with a bow here, and what is there to see?' "He stepped back a little, smiling. Mistress looked at him with wistful brown eyes. " 'Come sweetheart,' he coaxed. 'Laugh, and don't look so sad.' "She shook her head. " 'l'll never be able to laugh again,' she said. "At that momen£ Toby walked proudly into the square of light, and behind him in a row were the children. I felt a little annoyed for it was late for them to be out. But Toby led them up to Mistress and sat down, and the seven kittens sat> down too, in a solemn row. "Mistress counted them and my heart swelled with pride, for they did make a pretty picture. " 'Seven!' sho exclaimed. 'Oh! Toby, how clever of you.' "And her laughter was sweet and clear as little bells, and the light came back into Master's eyes and all is well now. "Yours, Tibby." "P.S. —But isn't that just like a dog to get all the credit. Still if it makes Mistress happy to think that they are his kittens, we won't say anything, will wo Muffy?"