'No, pussy!'
said I, 'if you have any conscience you ought not to expect that!'
And then a thought struck me; and I rang the bell for my maid, and
sent her to Mr Hoggins, with my compliments, and would he be kind
enough to lend me one of his top-boots for an hour? I did not
think there was anything odd in the message; but Jenny said the
young men in the surgery laughed as if they would be ill at my
wanting a top-boot. When it came, Jenny and I put pussy in, with
her forefeet straight down, so that they were fastened, and could
not scratch, and we gave her a teaspoonful of current-jelly in
which (your ladyship must excuse me) I had mixed some tartar
emetic. I shall never forget how anxious I was for the next half-
hour. I took pussy to my own room, and spread a clean towel on the
floor. I could have kissed her when she returned the lace to
sight, very much as it had gone down. Jenny had boiling water
ready, and we soaked it and soaked it, and spread it on a lavender-
bush in the sun before I could touch it again, even to put it in
milk. But now your ladyship would never guess that it had been in
pussy's inside."
We found out, in the course of the evening, that Lady Glenmire was
going to pay Mrs Jamieson a long visit, as she had given up her
apartments in Edinburgh, and had no ties to take her back there in
a hurry.
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