Haunted houses -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
I did not object. I think if she had said "We will fly home," I should
have made an attempt to fly, so absolutely was I, for the time,
deprived of the power of deciding my own movements. I did not see the
cat spring into the cab, but directly we were seated, there it lay
crouched in front of us; and when the driver pulled up at our house
there it was waiting for the street door to be opened.
"Lie down and rest yourself for an hour," said my wife, with deep
concern in her voice.
"No," I replied, "I will smoke a pipe in the garden."
With wifely solicitude she filled my pipe for me, and held a lighted
match to the tobacco. I puffed up, thanked her with a look, and went
into the garden accompanied by the cat.
In the part of London in which we live there are pleasant gardens
attached to many of the houses, and our little plot of ground is by no
means to be despised. It is some ninety feet in length, is divided in
the center by a broad graveled space, and has a graveled walk all
around it; and here when the weather permits, my wife and I frequently
sit and enjoy ourselves. I am also the proud possessor of a
greenhouse, which, as well as the borders and beds I have laid out, is
in summer and autumn generally bright with flowers, of which I am very
fond; and into this greenhouse I walked to smoke the green fly, which
was doing its worst for my pelargoniums. There are a couple of trees
in my garden, and birds' nests in them. The birds were flitting among
the branches, and I looked at the cat, wondering whether it would
spring after its feathered victims.
It took no notice of them, nor they of it. I remained in the
greenhouse ten or twelve minutes, and then it occurred to me to make
an experiment. With a swift and sudden motion I left the greenhouse
and pulled the door behind me, shutting the cat inside. I walked
toward the center of the garden, and the animal I thought I had
cunningly imprisoned glided on at my side. Doors shut and locked, and
doubtless stone walls, presented no greater obstacle to the creature
than the air I breathed.
I sat down on the garden seat and smoked and pondered, and was aroused
by a soft purring at my feet, and the contact of a furry body against
my legs. I uttered an exclamation, and, looking down, saw our own
household cat--a tortoise-shell tabby--rubbing against me. Now,
thought I, there will be a fight. But there was nothing of the kind. I
felt convinced that the skeleton cat saw our tortoise-shell cat, and
presently I was quite as convinced that the flesh and blood reality
was unconscious of the presence of the disembodied spirit.
I made another experiment. I went stealthily into the kitchen, and
filled a saucer with milk. This saucer I took into the garden and put
upon the gravel before the two cats.
"You must be hungry," I said aloud to the spectral figure, with a
feeble attempt at jocularity. "Lap up."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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