n for its
taste, and transferred its banqueting operations to the bedroom while the
Bishop was having his nap."

"What a frightful situation!" exclaimed Annabel; "fancy having a ravening
leopard in the house, with a flood all round you."

"Not in the least ravening," said Matilda; "it was full of goat, had any
amount of water at its disposal if it felt thirsty, and probably had no
more immediate wish than a desire for uninterrupted sleep. Still, I
think any one will admit that it was an embarrassing predicament to have
your only available guest-room occupied by a leopard, the verandah choked
up with goats and babies and wet hens, and a Bishop with whom you were
scarcely on speaking terms planted down in your own sitting-room. I
really don't know how I got through those crawling hours, and of course
mealtimes only made matters worse. The emergency cook had every excuse
for sending in watery soup and sloppy rice, and as neither the chief goat-
herd nor his wife were expert divers, the cellar could not be reached.
Fortunately the Gwadlipichee subsides as rapidly as it rises, and just
before dawn the syce came splashing back, with the ponies only fetlock
deep in water. Then there arose some awkwardness from the fact that the
Bishop wished to leave sooner than the leopard did, and as the latter was
ensconced in the midst of the former's personal possessions there was an
obvious difficulty in altering the order of departure. I pointed out to
the Bishop that a leopard's habits and tastes are not those of an otter,
and that it naturally preferred walking to wading; and that in any case a
meal of an entire goat, washed down with tub-water, justified a certain
amount of repose; if I had had guns fired to frighten the animal away, as
the Bishop suggested, it would probably merely have left the bedroom to
come into the already over-crowded drawing-room. Altogether it was
rather a relief when they both left. Now, perhaps, you can understand my
appreciation of a sleepy countryside where things don't happen."

THE PENANCE

Octavian Ruttle was one of those lively cheerful individuals on whom
amiability had set its unmistakable stamp, and, like most of his kind,
his soul's peace depended in large measure on the unstinted approval of
his fellows. In hunting to death a small tabby cat he had done a thing
of which he scarcely approved himself, and he was glad when the gardener
had hidden the body in its hastily dug grave