the drawing-room last
evening. Had the cat really seen anything of a supernatural nature? Or
was it only that she had been frightened by being suddenly brought into
a room full of people? If so, it was perhaps natural that she had blindly
flown at the one stranger there.

At last Timmy returned, and they started off, neither speaking a word
until they were clear of the village. Radmore thought he knew every inch
of the way, for he and Betty had once cycled together all over the
countryside. He checked a sigh as he thought of those days--how happy he
had been, with that simple, unquestioning happiness which belongs only to
extreme youth. He wondered if Betty ever remembered those far-off days.
They had come very near, the one to the other, last evening, and yet,
from his point of view, theirs was an unsatisfactory kind of friendship.
It was as if she was always holding something back from him. And then,
while he was thinking of Betty, the little boy sitting by his side
suddenly observed:

"Perhaps we might tell Betty--I mean when we get back again--where
Josephine and her kittens are? She was awfully upset last night; almost
as upset as I was. You see, Josephine's a French cat. She was brought
home--I mean to England, you know--by the officer who now wants to marry
Betty." Timmy uttered these words in a very matter-of-fact voice. Then,
for a moment, he forgot Betty, for the car swerved suddenly.

"The officer who wants to marry Betty?" repeated Radmore. "I didn't know
there was an officer who wanted to marry Betty."

"Nobody's supposed to know," said Timmy composedly. "But Mum and I, as
well as father, know. Only a very vulgar sort of girl lets anyone know
when someone wants to marry her. Mr. Barton is so ridiculous about Dolly,
following her about and always looking at her, that we all know it,
though Mum wonders sometimes if he knows it himself. But neither Dolly
nor Rosamund knows about Betty's man. Luckily, they were away when he
last came here and saw father. The first time Betty meant him to send
the kitten in a basket from London. She even gave him the money for
Josephine's fare, but he _would_ give it back to father. He brought her
himself because he wanted to see father, and talk to him about Betty and
George."

"Then he knew George, too?"

"Yes, that's how he got to know Betty, when she was in France, you know,
and why she gave him the kitten to bring home on leave. He knew all about
_us_, and when fath