The cat rubbed its grey sides against Veronica’s skirt and against her little slipper, as she sat there, one knee crossed over the other.  The young girl bent down and stroked it, and hesitated, looking at the tea-table, and not wishing to disturb the things to take a saucer for the cat until the tea was made.  As she bent down, Matilde took her handkerchief quietly from her pocket and laid it quite naturally in her lap.  Veronica, being on the other side of the table and the urn, could not possibly see what she did.

Gregorio came in.  Elettra had opened the door from without, for him to pass.  She stood on the threshold a moment, and looked towards the table, to see whether anything had been forgotten.  Then she closed the door, and went away, leaving the three together.  The water boiled almost immediately; and Gregorio was just sitting down when Matilde poured the water out of the teapot, and part in the tea.  She filled the pot, and leaned back in her chair to allow it to draw a few moments.

The silence was intense during several seconds.  Only the purring of the cat was heard, as Veronica, letting her arm hang down without stooping, gently rubbed its broad head.  It pushed itself under her hand, bending its back to her caress, turned quickly, and pushed its head under her hand once more, doing the same thing again and again.

Matilde sat upright, lifted the cover of the teapot an instant, and then began to move the cups.  Veronica, whose thoughts were intent upon the animal she was touching, and which, as she knew, was begging for cream, immediately leaned forward, and took from under the silver cream jug a saucer which Elettra had especially brought for the purpose.  She poured a little cream into it, and, bending down, placed it on the lower shelf of the tea-table, and gently pushed the cat towards it.

Matilde saw her opportunity, while Veronica was stooping; and in that moment she distributed the three lumps from her handkerchief in the three cups before her, and at once began to pour tea into the one containing the largest lump.  The cat, for some reason, wished the saucer to be set upon the floor; and Veronica still bent down, until it sprang lightly upon the lower shelf, and began the slow and dainty operation of lapping the cream.

During all this, Gregorio, anxious to seem unaware of anything extraordinary, and not really knowing how his wife meant to put the poison into the tea, was nervously looking away from her, sometimes towards the window, at the fast-fading light of the grey afternoon on the opposite house, and sometimes at Veronica’s head as she bent down.  When she looked up, Matilde was holding out her cup to her, having put some cream into it and a lump of real sugar to really sweeten the tea.

Veronica thanked her, drew a little nearer to the table, held her cup on her knee, and took a thin slice of bread and butter, which she proceeded to eat, stirring the tea slowly with her left hand.