lost in the streets. Aunt Katharine doesn't think we shall hear of
it again now. It _was_ such a dear little kitten; not pretty like
Darkie, but very good and sweet, and purred more than any of them."

"That _was_ a bad job," said the doctor sympathetically.

"Is Tuvvy's little girl's kitten a pretty one?" asked Maisie.

"Well, as to that," he replied slowly, "it looked to me about like other
cats, but then I didn't notice it much, you see, because I'm not so fond
of 'em as you are. If it had been a dog now, I could have told you all
its points at once. The little girl--Becky her name is--was very fond
of it, that's quite certain."

Deeply interested, Maisie secretly wondered what the "points" of a dog
were, and concluded that they must mean its paws and the tip of its
tail. After a minute's silence she put another question, rather
sternly.

"What colour was it? You _must_ have seen that."

Dr Price looked quite cast down by this severe examination.

"I'm afraid I didn't," he said humbly; "you see they always look alike
to me."

"There's _quite_ as much difference in them as there is in dogs," said
Maisie in an instructive voice; "Madam's three last kittens were not a
bit alike. One was black--we kept that; one was quite white--we gave
that to Philippa; and one was stripey grey, and that was the one that
went to Upwell and got lost."

"It would be odd, wouldn't it?" suggested the doctor, "if it was the one
I saw at Tuvvy's."

Maisie sat very upright, with a sparkle of excitement in her eyes.

"Could it be?" she exclaimed. "How did the little girl get it?"

Dr Price shook his head with a guilty air. "Didn't ask," he said.

His conduct with regard to the kitten had been thoroughly
unsatisfactory, but he looked so sorry, that Maisie could not be hard
upon him.

"Never mind," she said graciously; "I daresay, if you don't like cats--
It had one white paw," she added quickly, with renewed hope, "but I
daresay you didn't even notice that."

Dr Price was so anxious to please, that it is possible he might have
gone the length of remembering the one white paw, but he was saved from
this rashness by the entrance of Mrs Budget, bearing a covered dish from
which came a very savoury smell.

"There's Miss Pringle stepping down with cloak and umbrella for Miss
Chester," she said, "so I thought I'd just bring the dinner straight in.
It's done to a turn, and smells like a nosegay," she added, lifting the
cove