As Angelina McLaurin arose to gaze from the window she rocked on the tail of the ample Angora cat.
The cat made it a point to hang out in the library every afternoon. On this occasion, while Angelina McLaurin was dreaming of her lover, the cat had taken advantage of her abstraction to deftly bestow his tail beneath the rocker of her chair. When Angelina arose, as stated, the cat got the worst of it.
As the rocker came down on the cat's tail, the cat exploded into observations in Angorese that are unfit for these pages. Angelina was not only startled out of herself, but almost out of her frock. Angelina and the cat arose hastily, and stood there panting.
As the shrieks of the wronged exile from Angora were uplifted into space, the door of the library burst violently open.
"What is the matter, dearest? Are you injured? Why do you cry for help?"
It was George Maurice St. John who asked the question. As he did so, he caught Angelina McLaurin in his powerful arms, while the Angora cat, his worst fears now realised, chased himself down the hall with tail excited to lamp-cleaner size.
"What is it, love?" asked George Maurice St. John, as he tenderly unloaded his delicious burden onto a sofa, "Speak! it is the voice of your George who bids you. Has any one dared to insult the coming bride of a St. John?"
"Bear with me, George!" she whispered. "Believe me, I will be better anon!"
After a few moments she recovered, and was able to smile through her tears at the alarm of her dear one. Then she told George all: how the cat had been ass enough to leave his tail lying around loose while asleep; how, in the intensity of her waiting, she had put a crimp in it with the fell rocker of the chair; and how the cat had been drawn into statements, by sheer dint of agony, which it was impolitic as well as useless to repeat.
"So I was just in time, Angelina, to relieve both you and the cat of what was doubtless an awkward situation." And George Maurice St. John laughed gaily.
Then he kissed her with a fervour that left nothing to be wished for, and Angelina took a brace and sat erect on the sofa.
George tried to get in another kiss, but she stood him off.
"Don't crowd your luck, dear!" she said, with a sweet softness. "I am yours for ever, and there is not the slightest need for any excess of osculatory zeal. You are to have me with you always, so set a brake or two and take the grades easy."