I jumped in, and we got along,—­but not far.  Before we had gone a dozen yards, I was out again, without troubling the driver to stop.  He pulled up, aggrieved.

’Well, sir, what’s the matter now?  You’ll be damaging yourself before you’ve done, and then you’ll be blaming me.’

I had caught sight of a cat crouching in the shadow of the railings,—­a black one.  That cat was my quarry.  Either the creature was unusually sleepy, or slow, or stupid, or it had lost its wits—­which a cat seldom does lose!—­anyhow, without making an attempt to escape it allowed me to grab it by the nape of the neck.

So soon as we were inside my laboratory, I put the cat into my glass box.  Percy stared.

‘What have you put it there for?’

’That, my dear Percy, is what you are shortly about to see.  You are about to be the witness of an experiment which, to a legislator—­such as you are!—­ought to be of the greatest possible interest.  I am going to demonstrate, on a small scale, the action of the force which, on a large scale, I propose to employ on behalf of my native land.’

He showed no signs of being interested.  Sinking into a chair, he recommenced his wearisome reiteration.

’I hate cats!—­Do let it go!—­I’m always miserable when there’s a cat in the room.’

’Nonsense,—­that’s your fancy!  What you want’s a taste of whisky—­ you’ll be as chirpy as a cricket.’

‘I don’t want anything more to drink!—­I’ve had too much already!’

I paid no heed to what he said.  I poured two stiff doses into a couple of tumblers.  Without seeming to be aware of what it was that he was doing he disposed of the better half of the one I gave him at a draught.  Putting his glass upon the table, he dropped his head upon his hands, and groaned.

‘What would Marjorie think of me if she saw me now?’

’Think?—­nothing.  Why should she think of a man like you, when she has so much better fish to fry?’

‘I’m feeling frightfully ill!—­I’ll be drunk before I’ve done!’

’Then be drunk!—­only, for gracious sake, be lively drunk, not deadly doleful.—­Cheer up, Percy!’ I clapped him on the shoulder, —­almost knocking him off his seat on to the floor.  ’I am now going to show you that little experiment of which I was speaking!—­You see that cat?’

‘Of course I see it!—­the beast!—­I wish you’d let it go!’

’Why should I let it go?—­Do you know whose cat that is?  That cat’s Paul Lessingham’s.’

‘Paul Lessingham’s?’

’Yes, Paul Lessingham’s,—­the man who made the speech,—­the man whom Marjorie went away with.’

‘How do you know it’s his?’

’I don’t know it is, but I believe it is,—­I choose to believe it is!—­I intend to believe it is!—­It was outside his house, therefore it’s his cat,—­that’s how I argue.  I can’t get Lessingham inside that box, so I get his cat instead.’

‘Whatever for?’