Page:My household of pets (IA myhouseholdofpet00gautiala).pdf/37

 with a profound attention the point of the steel pen as it scattered flies' legs over the white surface of the paper, making a little movement of his head at the beginning of each new line. Sometimes he took a fancy to join in the work, and would try to get the pen away from us, doubtless with the intention of using it in his turn; for he was an æsthetic cat, like the cat Murr, described by Hoffman, and we strongly suspected him of spending nights in some hidden gutter writing his memoirs by the light of his own phosphoric eyes. Unfortunately these lucubrations, if they ever existed, are forever lost.

Don Pierrot de Navarre would never settle himself to sleep till we had come home. He always waited just inside the door, and, the moment we stepped into the ante-*chamber, rubbed himself against our legs, arching his back, and purring in a joyous and friendly manner. Then he would