When he had withdrawn, the hospitable officer, of whom it could well be said that "he had a teapot in his soul," poured out two cups of tea with an abstracted air, pushed one towards Hansie with his right hand, while he slowly stirred his own with his left. "Have some tea," he said persuasively. There was no answer, and he again bent over the work with which he was occupied. Hansie got up quietly and left the room, but she had not gone many yards in the long corridor before she became aware of hurried footsteps following. It was the tall officer, very straight now, who called out to her: "Stop, stop a moment. Where are you going?" Without turning round she replied: "To General Maxwell. He _never_ keeps me waiting," and walked on rapidly. "Don't go," he implored. "Come back to my office. I have your permits quite ready for you. I was busy with them all the time." She turned round slowly and walked back with him to his office. "Thank you _very_ much," she said as she took the papers from his hand. He opened the door for her with exaggerated courtesy, and she went on her way, brimming over with delight. "I missed two teas this afternoon, but I got my permits and came off with flying colours," she confided to her dumb companion. "Let us go home and tell the mother all about it, Carlo mine." CHAPTER XXXII KIDNAPPING MAUSER THE KITTEN One afternoon when Mrs. van Warmelo and Hansie were returning home, as they passed the house occupied by one of the biggest "lords" in the British Army, they saw an exquisite black kitten sitting on the steps leading from the street to the garden. Such a kitten! Coal black she was, except for a snowy shirt front and four dainty, snow-white paws. A delicate ribbon of pale blue satin was fastened in a bow round her neck, and she blinked at the passers-by in friendly consciousness of her superior beauty. "Oh, you darling!" Hansie exclaimed. "I wish you belonged to me!" "She does," Mrs. van Warmelo answered, and stooping, she picked up the unresisting kitten and placed it in her daughter's arms. It was done in a moment and was meant for a joke, but Hansie took the matter seriously and walked on, rapturously caressing her small "trophy of the war." "Hansie, put that cat down," Mrs. van Warmelo said, looking anxiously up and down the street. "No indeed, mother; you gave her to me." "You know very well I did not mean you to keep her. I decline to have anything more to do with the matter." She walked rapidly on and Hansie followed in some uncertainty, but holding on to her new-found treasure as if her life depended upon it. Soon she caught up with her indignant parent and said in a conciliatory tone of voice: "Surely, mother, you don't suppose I would steal a cat from any one else! But Lord ---- is trying to take my country, why should I not take his cat?" "Two wrongs never made one right," her mother answered, "but do as you please. You always do."