Page:Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920).djvu/42

16 ago to visit another friend who lives at 110 Hollis.”

“Max!”

“It’s a fact. I rang the bell, and was just going to ask the maid for ‘Persian’ when your Aunt Cynthia herself came through the hall and pounced on me.

“‘Max,’ she said, ‘have you brought Fatima?’

“‘No,’ I answered, trying to adjust my wits to this new development as she towed me into the library. ‘No, I — I — just came to Halifax on a little matter of business.’

“‘Dear me,’ said Aunt Cynthia, crossly, ‘I don’t know what those girls mean. I wired them to send Fatima at once. And she has not come yet and I am expecting a call every minute from some one who wants to buy her.’

“‘Oh!’ I murmured, mining deeper every minute.

“‘Yes,’ went on your aunt, ‘there is an advertisement in the Charlotteville Enterprise for a Persian cat, and I answered it. Fatima is really quite a charge, you know — and so apt to die and be a dead loss’ — did your aunt mean a pun, girls? — ‘and so, although I am considerably attached to her, I have decided to part with her.’

“By this time I had got my second wind, and I promptly decided that a judicious mixture of the truth was the thing required.