The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-10-31

".
"Quite So" assented Curtis drily. He added
more for his own instruction than Plymesser's
"Miss Graydon, if | were to suggest fault knows
her points rather too well and doesn't hesitate
to call attention to them"
"Well what are girls for" retorted Plymesser,
Curtis sat at his desk the next morning wrest-
ling against an obsession in the image of grace
full little woman in gray. He found himself obliged
to compromise with the obsession. Trusting his
work aside impatiently he began on q fresh sheet.
This went better. At last he came out of a trance
of absorption with start Something made him
turn abruptly. There in the center of the room, de
murely regarding him, sat little gray cat!
Curtis rubbed his eyes; for one instant a SILVER
struck along his blood then he threw back his head
and laughed uproariousy. He remembered the
open window and the crowded roofs and chimney
pots outside his sky-parlor. In one sense Curtis
lived high. But what coicidence and what a cat!
No fluffy, spoiled Angora, no starved stray of
the alleys; but a sleek, dainty creature whose de-
mure distinction belonged to herself and the entire
race of cats. Pure maltese in color, she folded
lang and supple tail across her feet.
kitty" called Curtis, ohlding out his hand.
The cat rose, but did not approach him. She
walked about the room with an air of quiet, imper
sonal observation. Curtis loved animals. He made.
prompt overtures of friendliness The cat accepted
his pettng with staid nonchalance. When he lifted
her in his arms she did not resist He seated him
self at his desk again and placed her his knee.
She sat there, dainty, detached, inscrutabe. She
turned her smooth head and fixed her eyes, large,
round and gray lit with points of yellow seriously
upon him. If the pupils had been round instead of
verticall As it was his heart quickened some
beats.
"Graygown" said Curtis aloud gently stroking
her fur, 81 think-I think [ in love with you
But it won't do, you know! I've got years of hard
work ahead of me. To say nothing of the extreme
improbability of my ever getting you to consider it,
you're too expensive luxury for That's put
,+,l1,, f,o+
Besides, you're a witch. What do [ want of
witch anyhow! | hope you won't mind being
put a cushion? Right here by the fire? So"
Graygown accepted the cushion courteously
Presently she got up, strolled softfootedly about
mounted the windowSill and sprang down upon the
confusion of roofs outside.
Curtis read over the manuscript on his desk. 1t
seemed now so little satisfactory that he tore it
across, thrust the pieces into the fire and watched
them curl and backen in the crate.
Within week Curtis saw Miss Graydon again
He had most prudently determined to see as little
of her as he courteously might but one advantage
of being lion is that you almost forced sooner
or later to meet people you might otherwise choose
to avoid.
Miss Graydon remarked TRANQUILITY: 81 kept my
word Friday. You saw [ came"
Curtis blushed and stammered like tender
criminal caught in the jam closet for the first time
"Well," he managed finally, II will admit that
cat came, but how do [ know it was your!
AS he looked down at her, the gray draperies
curled lithey about her, her suave, attentive, i'm
penetrable attitude, her gray, mystic innocent eyes
"a thrill that not superstition but borrowed
something from it, ran deciously along his veins.
Quite unconsciously to himself, he took masterful
possession of her. He was a very recent lion, you
will remember.
you don't believe me" said Miss Graydon. II
vii ltel you what [ saw There is a soft under the
window where l went out, and a big brick fireplace
at right angles with wolf-skin in front; and
big walnut bookcase full of books; and walnut
writing table. On the writing-tabe there is green
cloth covered with ink spots"
"Some one told you," said Curtis. 'PIymes-
"There was writing on the table [ saw. 1t
poem, all blotted and interlined and the name at
the top Gods of Egypt"
Curtis glowered. No living eye save his and the
cats could by any possibility have seen those i'll
starred lines Curtis fell out of drawing perspec-
tive altogether. His big shoulders and rugged head
bent forward, he thrust out his lip and contracted
his brow with the bare impossibity of the thing in
a silence which ignored the small, soft, gray feline
figure at his side.
young woman" he said "you ought to be
thankful that the views of Cotton Mather have be-
come obsolete"
q am" she said, quietly. "My great great
great-grandmoher was hanged"
Its only fair to warn YOU" the young man said
solemny, that if you honor again in your feline
form l shall take every means IN my power to pre-
vent your escape"
"Plymesser,' demanded Curtis of that worthy
'what is it about Miss Graydon!"
''Well, if you can't find out" retorted Plynes-
ser, with all the chances you're giving yourself"
"Oh cut that out! !" growled Curtis. Il mean
WELL she said her great-great great grandmother
was hanged"
chats quite true" returned Plymesse7 serious
" Her great-g reat-great grandmother was Mercy
Ryder, the witch's daughter of Salem, Goody Ry-
der was hanged in 1893"
About this time Curtis developed his theory that
an undesirable emotion should be allowed full
sweep through the House of Life, being thus most
likely to expend itself hannlessly. The theory was
in full swing when one day slight, scrambling
sound at the window made his heart leap out
rageouslyy He was developing rheumatism from