times, and lay down again,
Alas! "tibby pussy" was not allowed to have any continuous slumber. Nan
dragged the Persian by its tail into her lap, and when it resisted this
indignity, and with two or three light bounds disappeared out of the
room, she stretched out her little hands and began to cry for it.

"Tum back, puss, puss--tum back, poor tibby puss--Nan loves 'oo. Annie,
go fetch puss for Nan." Then for the first time she discovered that Annie
was absent, and that she was alone, with the exception of Mrs. Willis,
who sat busily writing at a distant table.

Mrs. Willis counted for nothing at all with Nan--she did not consider her
of the smallest importance and after giving her a quick glance of some
disdain she began to trot round the room on a voyage of discovery. Any
moment Annie would come back--Annie had, indeed, probably gone to fetch
the kitten, and would quickly return with it. She walked slowly round and
round, keeping well away from that part of the room where Mrs. Willis
sat. Presently she found a very choice little china jug, which she
carefully abstracted with her small fingers from a cabinet, which
contained many valuable treasures. She sat down on the floor exactly
beneath the cabinet, and began to play with her jug. She went through in
eager pantomime a little game which Annie had invented for her, and
imagined that she was a little milkmaid, and that the jug was full of
sweet new milk; she called out to an imaginary set of purchasers, "Want
any milk?" and then she poured some by way of drops of milk into the palm
of her little hand, which she drank up in the name of her customers with
considerable gusto. Presently knocking the little jug with some vehemence
on the floor she deprived it with one neat blow of its handle and spout.
Mrs. Willis was busily writing, and did not look up. Nan was not in the
least disconcerted; she said aloud:

"Poor tibby zug b'oke," and then she left the fragments on the floor, and
started off on a fresh voyage of discovery. This time she dragged down a
large photographic album on to a cushion, and, kneeling by it, began to
look through the pictures, flapping the pages together with a loud noise,
and laughing merrily as she did so. She was now much nearer to Mrs.
Willis, who was attracted by the sound, and looking up hastened to the
rescue of one of her most precious collections of photographs.

"Nan, dear," she said, "shut up that book at once. Nan mustn't touch.
Shut