...
"Ferme tes yeux à demi,
Croise tes bras sur ton sein,
Et de ton coeur endormi
Chasse à jamais tout dessein.
* * *
"Je chante Ia nature,
Les étoiles du soir, les larmes
du matin,
Les couchers de soleil à l'horizon
lointain,
Ie ciel qui parle au coeur d'existence
future!"
...
I.
THE animal paused on the threshold,
interrogative, alert, ready for flight if necessary. Severn laid down his
palette, and held out a hand of welcome. The cat remained motionless, her
yellow eyes fastened upon Severn.
Puss," he said, in his low, pleasant
voice, come in."
The tip of her thin tail twitched
uncertainly.
"Come in," he said again.
Apparently she found his voice reassuring,
for she slowly settled upon all fours, her eyes still fastened upon him,
her tail tucked under her gaunt flanks.
He rose from his easel smiling.
She eyed him quietly, and when he walked toward her she watched him bend
above her without a wince her eyes followed his hand until it touched her
head. Then she uttered a ragged niew.
It had long been Severn's custom
to converse with animals, prnbably because he lived so much alone and now
he said "What's the matter, puss ?"
Her timid eyes sought his.
"I understand," he said gently,
"you
shall have it at once.
Then moving quietly about he busied
himself with the duties of a host, rinsed a saucer, filled it with the
rest of the milk from the bottle on the window-sill, and kneeling down,
crumbled a roll into the hollow of his hand.
The creature rose and crept toward
the saucer.
With the handle of a palette knife
he stirred the crumbs and milk together and stepped back as she thrust
her nose into the mess. He watched her in silence. From time to time the
saucer klinked upon the tiled floor as she reached for a morsel on the
rim; and at last the bread was all gone, and her purple tongue travelled
over every unlicked spot until the saucer shone like polished marble. Then
she sat up, and coolly turning her back to him, began her ablutions.
"Keep it up," said Severn much interested,
"you need it."
She flattened one ear but neither
turned nor interrupted her toilet. As the grime was slowly removed Severn
observed that nature ~ad intended her for a white cat. Her fur had disappeared
in patches, from disease or the chances of war, her tail was bony and her
spine sharp. But what charms she had were becoming apparent under vigorous
licking, and he waited until she had finished before re-opening the conversation.
When at last she closed her eyes and folded her forepaws under her breast,
he began again very gently: "Puss, tell me your troubles."
At the sound of his voice she broke
into a harsh rumbling which he recognized as an attempt to purr. He bent
over to rub her cheek and she mewed again, an amiable inquiring little
mew, to which he replied, "Certainly, you are greatly improved, and when
you recover your plumage you will be a gorgeous bird." Much flattered she
stood up and marched around and around his legs, pushing her head between
them and making pleased remarks, to which he responded with grave politeness.
"Now what sent you here," he said,
"here into the Street of the Four Winds, and up five flights to the very
door where you would be welcome? What was it that prevented your meditated
flight when I turned from my canvas to encounter your yellow eyes ? Are
you a Latin Quarter cat as I am a Latin Quarter man? And why do you wear
a rose-colored flowered garter buckled about your neck? The cat had climbed
into his lap and now sat purring as he passed his hand over her thin coat.
Excuse me," he continued in lazy
soothing tbnes, harmonizing with her purring, "if I seem indelicate, but
I cannot help musing on this rose-colored garter, flowered so quaintly
and fastened with a silver clasp. For the clasp is silver; I can see the
mint mark on the edge, as is prescribed by the law of the French Republic.
Now, why is this garter woven of rose silk and delicately embroidered,---why
is this silken garter with its silver clasp about your famished throat?
Am I indiscreet when I inquire if its owner is your owner ? Is she some
aged dame living in memory of youthful vanities fond, doting on you, decorating
you with her intimate personal attire ? The circumference of the garter
would suggest this, for your neck is thin, and the garter fits you. But
then again I notice---I notice most things---that the garter is capable
of being much enlarged. These small silver-rimmed eyelets, of which I count
five, are proof of that, And now I observe that the fifth eyelet is worn
out, as though the tongue of the clasp were accustomed to lie there. That
seems to argue a well-rounded form."
The cat curled her toes in contentment.
The street was very still outside.
He murmured on : "Why should your
mistress decorate you with an article most necessary to her at all times
? Anyway, at most times. How did she come to slip this bit of silk and
silver about your neck? Was it the caprice of a moment, when you, before
you had lost your pristine plumpncss, marched singing into her bedroom
to bid her good-morning? Of course, and she sat up among the pillows, her
coiled hair tumbling to her shoulders, as you sprang upon the bed purring:
'Good-day, my lady.' Oh, it is very easy to understand," he yawned, resting
his head on the back of the chair., The cat still purred, tightening and
relaxing her padded claws over his knee.
"Shall I tell you all about her,
cat? She is very beautiful---your mistress," he murmured drowsily, " and
her hair is heavy as burnished gold." "I could paint her,---not on canvas---for
I should need shades and tones and hues and dyes more splendid than the
iris of a splendid rainbow. I could only paint her with closed eyes, for
in dreams alone can such colors as I need be found. For her eyes, I must
have azure from skies untroubled by a cloud---the skies of dreamland. For
her lips, roses from the palaces of slumberland, and for her brow, snow-drifts
from mountains which tower in fantastic pinnacles to the moons;---oh, much
higher than our moon here,---the crystal moons of dreamland She is---very---beautiful,
your mistress."
The words died on his lips and his
eyelids drooped.
The cat too was asleep, her cheek
turned Up upon her. wasted flank, her paws relaxed and limp.
End of PART ONE..... GO TO PART
TWO..... 
