At this moment the gentleman got up, stretched his long——­

But I will not allude to them!  It annoys me as much as the thought of that bungling cat, or of Nipper’s baulked attempt.  He put up his hands and lifted me from his shoulder, and my heart sank as he said, “If I am to catch my train, I fear I must say good-bye.”

I believe that, in this hopeless crisis, my fur as usual was in my favour.  He rubbed his cheek against mine before putting me down, and then said, “And you’ve not told me, after all, where poor Toots is really going.”

“We have not found a home for him yet, I assure you,” said my mistress.  “Our washerwoman wants him, and she is a most kind-hearted and respectable person, but she has got nine children, and——­”

“Nine children!” ejaculated my friend, “My poor Toots, there will not be an inch of that magnificent tail of yours left at the end of a week.  What cruelty to animals!  Upon my word, I’d almost rather take Toots myself, than think of him with a washerwoman and nine children.  Eh, Toots! would you like to come?”

I was on the carpet, rubbing against his—­yes, long or short, they were his, and he was kind to me!—­rubbing, I say, against his legs.  I could get no impetus for a spring, but I scrambled straight up him as one would scramble up a tree (my grandmother was a bird-catcher of the first talent, and I inherit her claws), and uttered one pitiful mew.

The gentleman gave a short laugh, and took me into his arms.

“Oh, how good of you!  Jones shall get a hamper,” cried the ladies.  But he shook his head.

“Three of the fourteen parcels I’ve got to pick up at the station are hampers.  I wouldn’t have another on my mind for a fortune.  If Toots comes at all, he must come like a Christian and look after himself.”

I will not dwell on our departure.  It was a sadly flurried one, for a cat of my temperament.  The ladies saw us off, and as my young mistress covered me with farewell kisses, I felt an unquestionable pang of regret.  But one has to repress one’s affections, and consider one’s prospects in life, if one does not want to come upon the Deserted Cats’ Fund!

My master put his hat on the back of his head on the steps, and knocked it off in shouting through a hole in the roof of the cab that we were to drive like the wind, as we were late.  At the last moment several things were thrown in after us.  A parcel of books he had lent the young lady, and a pair of boots he had left behind on some former occasion.  The books were very neatly packed, and addressed, but the boots came “like Christians, and looked after themselves.”  And through all, I clung fast, and blessed the inherited vigour of my grandmother’s claws.

At the parcels office, I certainly risked nine lives among the fourteen parcels which were dragged and pitched, and turned over in every direction; but though he paid me no other attention, my master never forgot to put back a hand to help me when we moved on.  Eventually we found ourselves alone in a very comfortable carriage, and I suppose the fourteen packages were safe too, thanks to the desperate struggles of five porters, who went off clutching their paws as if they were satisfied with the result.