‘Lovely Monty! Lovely glorious Monty!’

It was that it wanted. It wanted to be talked to. It climbed on to her lap and sat erect, purring, and gazing at her with brilliant golden eyes, proudly tranquil like a hawk on the falconer’s wrist.

‘Oh, my kind cat!’

For it was kindness she needed. Robin was nearly an hour late, and she had plumbed to below the false agonies of thinking him faithless, or dead, and now only acknowledged that it was perfectly to be expected that he should keep her waiting, since that was the kind of young man he was. 78She would wait, and in his own good time he would arrive. She had pinned her life on him, and henceforward her life must include these intervals, like the drab-coloured parts of Monty’s coat, of neglect and negligibility. Meanwhile she went on talking to Monty.

‘Such a kind cat, such a wise cat! What would I have done without you? But you were here.’

Leaning forward, she said, ‘I see how it is. You are really my bridesmaid. I didn’t expect to have one, and at first you were not sure of it either, because I didn’t look the part. You are quite right. It is much more comfortable to have the sort of wedding that has bells and a wedding-cake, as dark and rich as you are, my darling. Unfortunately, I haven’t managed that. I’m not at all a good manager, and heaven only knows what will become of me. But whatever happens, I shall always be able to think that I had a bridesmaid. Or would you rather be a page? No, you are too dignified for that. A bridesmaid, a bride’s-cat. All dressed in velvet, my beautiful one, and wearing white gloves and black velvet boots. And when I set out this morning, so long ago, I thought I should have no one to stand by me, no one at all.’

The cat was asleep again, lying warm on her knees, when Robin came in. Her face had achieved a look of childish abstraction and repose, and the thought sparked in his mind, Now I shall often see her like that. The cat sat up, she looked round. But he was too intent on her to see that her brief beauty had vanished.

‘Have I kept you waiting? Have you been thinking me a brute?’79

‘I knew there was plenty of time, so I didn’t worry.’

‘Plenty of time? That’s all you know about it. Where are your traps, darling? Haven’t you brought any?’

‘There’s my case, under that table.’

‘Good,’ he said, picking it up. ‘Now we’ll be off.’

‘But I must pay for my coffee.’

‘I’ll see to that. Come on, the taxi’s waiting, there’s no time to lose.’

‘But the train doesn’t start till—’

‘We’re not going by train.’

She had risen, but she sat down again, clutching her heart.

‘Not going?’

‘No, I’ve changed all that. We’re flying. I’ve rung up the hotel, everything’s perfect, and to-night you’ll go to bed in Paris.’