The cat, past and present / from the French of M. Champfleury [pseud.] with supplementary notes by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.

  • Champfleury, 1821-1889.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cat, past and present / from the French of M. Champfleury [pseud.] with supplementary notes by Mrs. Cashel Hoey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their loss, may not be for ever absent from us when the journey is ended. He loved us all, and had his different ways of show- ing us that he loved us; but, above all, and in a totally separate way, he loved his master. His ear was quicker to hear his step than the ear of wife or child, and so well was this known among us, that a glance at Hero was enough to tell us his master was coming. Two latchkeys are permitted in our household; one to its head, the other to a junior member. Nero used to distinguish the sound of his master’s key in the lock so cor- rectly, that it was an infallible guide to the servants. ‘ That’s master,—look at Nero ! ’ they would say. He would jump off his bed and run downstairs in the night, to be in waiting at the door, long before we caught the sound of his master’s tread in the stillness of the summer, and the storm and rain of winter could not whirl it away from his ears. The creature’s distress when signs of packing up presented themselves was pitiable, and the ingenuity with which he arrived at a conclusion about what he had to dread, wonderful. If his master went away, carrying a small black bag, he was not restless or wretched until evening came, and then, if his return were deferred, Nero would run to’ the door leading up to the garret where boxes are kept, and cry until someone came to open it, when he would rush frantically up the stairs, and search for a portmanteau which accompanies his master in prolonged absences. If the portmanteau were forthcoming he would lie down upon it, and purr loudly, and then go to bed content, satisfied that his master would return ; but if he could not find the portmanteau, he would know that his worst fears were realized, and then he would lie prone on the floor, and refuse food for twenty-four hours at a time. We had to be most careful, when his master was leaving home, to prevent his getting out. If he knew it, he would always try to hide himself in the cab, which must have been a tumbril in his eyes, or failing that, to run after it. If his master came into the room with his hat on early in the day he would make great efforts to push it off with his nose and his teeth, but in the even- ing he made no such efforts; he knew that in the one case he was going out, and that in the other he had come home, as well as we knew it. I might multiply instances and proofs of this great love of the fonr-footed for the human friend; but I have told you enough in these two instances, which were habitual and