Part 3 (2/2)

'Is it?' asked Jimmy, not understanding in the least what he meant.

'I wonder what Miss Morton will say about it?' cried Jones.

'What do you think she'll say?' asked Jimmy, staring up at the butler's face.

'Well,' was the answer, 'you had better come indoors, anyhow,' and Jimmy entered the house and stood leaning against his clothes-box, whilst Jones shut the street door.

'Step this way, sir,' said Jones; but although he took Jimmy to the dining-room, unfortunately there was no sign of dinner.

He saw the black cat still sitting on a chair watching the tortoise-sh.e.l.l cat outside the window, and on the hearth-rug lay a tabby one, with its head on the fender, fast asleep.

'You had better sit here until Miss Morton comes home,' said the butler.

'Do you think she'll be very long?' asked Jimmy.

'About half-past three,' was the answer, and Jones opened the coal-box to put some more coal on the fire as he spoke.

'Because I haven't had any dinner at all,' said Jimmy.

'Oh, you haven't, haven't you?' cried Jones, as he stood holding the coal shovel.

'No,' said Jimmy, 'and I'm rather hungry.'

'Well, I don't know what Miss Morton'll say about you,' was the answer.

'So,' he added, as he put away the shovel, 'you think you'd like something to eat?'

'I'm sure I should--very much,' cried Jimmy.

The butler went away, but he soon came back with a folded white cloth in his hands. Whilst Jimmy kneeled down on the hearth-rug rubbing the head of the tabby cat, Jones laid the cloth, and then he went away again and returned with a plate of hot roast-beef and Yorks.h.i.+re pudding and potatoes and cauliflower.

He placed a chair with its back to the fire, and told Jimmy to ring when he was ready for some apple-tart.

When Jimmy was alone eating his dinner and enjoying it very much, he began to think it might not be so bad to stay at Aunt Selina's after all. The black cat came from the chair by the window and meowed on one side of him, and the tabby cat meowed on the other, and Jimmy fed them both whilst he fed himself. When his plate was quite empty, he rang the bell and Jones brought him a large piece of apple-tart, with a brown jug of cream. Then presently the butler took away the things, and Jimmy sat down in an arm-chair by the fire with one of the cats on each knee.

Every few minutes he looked over his shoulder to see whether Aunt Selina was coming, and by and by the bell rang. Jimmy rose from his chair and the cats jumped to the floor, and, going close to the window, he saw his aunt's tall, thin figure on the doorstep.

CHAPTER IV

AUNT SELINA AT HOME

Miss Morton had been to lunch with a friend, and she naturally expected to find her house exactly the same as she had left it. She was a lady who always liked to find things exactly the same as she left them; she did not care for fresh faces or fresh places, and she certainly did not care to see two boxes in her hall.

Miss Morton was a little short-sighted, but the moment that she entered the house she noticed something unusual. So she stopped just within the door before the butler could shut it and put on her double eye-gla.s.ses, and then she stared in astonishment at Jimmy's boxes.

'What are those?' she asked.

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