[Illustration:  “LATE AGAIN, SAMUEL!”]

Horror!  Could she suspect anything?  I felt my face growing the colour of my hair, and my tongue frozen solid.

“Can’t you answer?” she went on wrathfully.  “And can’t you stand up straight?”

I pulled my legs together and commenced to stammer.

“I—­I saw Beauty out—­outside, aunt, in the garden,” I managed to mutter.

“Which way was he going?”

“Why, I think he was running towards the house, aunt.”

[Illustration:  THIRTY MILES AN HOUR.]

And then the remembrance of how he was running—­thirty miles an hour, with tail on end and ears flat to his head, with Jim and my long-legged self racing in rear—­made me choke with laughter I was forced to swallow.  But my aunt’s eyes were on me, and her gold-rimmed barnacles blazed through me, so I suffocated in silence.

“Don’t stand making faces like an idiot.  Go and dress, and be quick,” snapped my loving relative, as she marched away downstairs and I flew to the region above.

My bedroom door was partly open, and I dashed in hastily, pulling off my things as I went.

[Illustration:  DRESSING FOR DINNER.]

My evening clothes were laid out ready on the bed, and—­what was that on my shirt?—­a black mass of—­something moving!—­some animal!  Why, heavens and earth, it was the ghost of—­that beast Beauty!  It was Beauty himself!  I ran for the poker; Beauty rushed out of the door.  Confound that rotten old sack!

I was late for dinner, and found Beauty seated in my chair, sleek and dry, with a ravenously whetted appetite.  My aunt was so pleased with her favourite’s improved appearance that she became quite affable, even to me.  I was informed that as I had not been looking well lately I might go for a few days’ change to the seaside; the salubrious air of Muddiford-on-the-Ooze would just suit me.  What a blessing!  To have escaped from those ice-gleaming spectacles and from that resuscitated beast Beauty I would gladly have gone to Jericho, much more to Muddiford-on-the-Ooze.  Then my aunt continued her course of instructions, with the nearest approach to a smile I had ever seen on her face.

[Illustration:  A SHOW AT MUDDIFORD-ON-THE-OOZE.]

“You will enjoy yourself, I am sure, Samuel, and you will also be able to show what pains you can take to please me,” she said, sipping her first glass of Burgundy with approving relish.  “There is to be a show at Muddiford the day after to-morrow, at which I intend exhibiting, and you will be able to manage everything for me; so mind you are careful to do your best.”

“I shall be most delighted,” I declared gushingly.  “What show is it?  And what can I have the pleasure of taking charge of for you, my dear aunt?”

“It’s the Grand All-England Cat Show, and you will take Beauty; and I shall be greatly disappointed if you do not bring me back the first prize.  So be on your best behaviour, Samuel, or perhaps you may live to regret it.”