Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/75



“Yes,” Gandhi said eagerly, “what did he say?“”

“He told me that when you came to Churt you squatted on his couch and just as you got settled a black cat which they had never seen before came in through the window and rested in your lap.”

“That’s correct,” Gandhi said.

“And when you left, Lloyd George declared,” I said, “the cat disappeared and didn’t come back again.”

“Ah,” said Gandhi, “that I don’t know.”

Mr. Lloyd George said,” I continued, “that the same cat returned when Miss Slade visited him at Churt.”

“That too I don’t know,” Gandhi said. He spoke highly of Lloyd George. I told him that Lloyd George had offered me a cigar or cigarette and I refused because I didn’t smoke, and he offered me alcohol which I also refused because I didn’t drink, and then Lloyd George said, “No vices,” and I said, “No visible ones,” and Lloyd George said with gusto, “Well, I have them all, visible and invisible, and that’s why I feel so well at seventy five.” Gandhi laughed long. I then told Gandhi that after I had lunched with Lloyd George we walked back to the parlor through a corridor in which there was an enlarged photograph of General Haig, the British commander-in-chief in France during the first World War. Lloyd George pointed to Haig’s boots and said, “Haig was bril-