ke down a book, he gently
brushed the dust off the upper leaves before opening it. I think I
have mentioned all the furniture of the room except a sort of ladder,
low, broad, well carpeted, and strongly guarded with oaken rails, by
which he helped himself to books from his higher shelves. On the top
step of this convenience, Hinse of Hinsfeldt, (so called from one of
the German _Kinder-maerchen_,) a venerable tom-cat, fat and sleek, and
no longer very locomotive, usually lay watching the proceedings of his
master and Maida with an air of dignified equanimity; but when Maida
chose to leave the party, he signified his inclinations by thumping
the door with his huge paw, as violently as ever a fashionable footman
handled a knocker in Grosvenor Square; the Sheriff rose and opened it
for him with courteous alacrity,--and then Hinse came {p.242} down
purring from his perch, and mounted guard by the footstool, _vice_
Maida absent upon furlough.[108] Whatever discourse might be passing,
was broken every now and then by some affectionate apostrophe to these
four-footed friends. He said they understood everything he said to
them--and I believe they did understand a great deal of it. But at all
events, dogs and cats, like children, have some infallible tact for
discovering at once who is and who is not really fond of their
company; and I venture to say, Scott was never five minutes in any
room before the little pets of the family, whether dumb or lisping,
had found out his kindness for all their generation.

[Footnote 108: [Of Hinse, Washington Irving writes in
his _Abbotsford_:--

"Among the other important and privileged members of the
household who figured in attendance at dinner, was a
large gray cat, who, I observed, was regaled from time
to time with titbits from the table. This sage grimalkin
was a favorite of both master and mistress, and slept at
night in their room, and Scott laughingly observed, that
one of the least wise parts of their establishment was
that the window was left open at night for puss to go in
and out. The cat assumed a kind of ascendency among the
quadrupeds--sitting in state in Scott's armchair, and
occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the
door, as if to review his subjects as they passed,