When she went down to get the flowers, Mrs. Bagot had left the window open, and now she wanted to shut it. Rupert was too lazy even to attempt the leap from the shed roof to this windowsill, but Minnie, the thin black cat, could do it easily, and Mrs. Bagot did not want to risk Martin’s coming home tonight and finding Minnie on his bed. Mrs. Bagot did not know for sure whether it was the animals or Martin’s hatred of the animals that caused a good many of the complications in the house. She gave in to him on most things, but she wouldn’t give up the animals. The children would miss them terribly, and so would she. She would simply have to go on keeping the animals out of Martin’s way, and keeping the children away from his door in the morning when he was sleeping. And in the end, all she was really doing was keeping herself out of his way. She couldn’t bear to think about it, because what had started out as a simple arrangement for Martin’s comfort had gone all out of hand, and now there seemed to be no way of putting an end to it. The situation in the house was unnatural, with no real consideration going for anybody. She found herself getting very nervous about the children when Martin was in the house, and when they were all together she couldn’t stop herself from watching the children, as though Martin were there only to pass judgment on them. She was always keyed up, ready to defend them against him, and ready to take any blame on herself for what they did, and ready to snap at them if they showed signs of doing anything that might irritate him.