Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1894 — LOVE AND THE CAT. [ARTICLE]

LOVE AND THE CAT.

Chicago Hail. ~ Billings bad been unfortunate all his life, and when he expressed his sorrow in verse and published a volume at hisuwn expense called “Heart and Hand,” all the critics mobbed him. Then Kitty Lester, whom he fondly expected to marry, jilted him after writing this little note: “Good-bye. lam going to marry Eben White. I hope you will bo happy with Minerva Brown.” That was ail. but it was enough for Billings. He shut himself up like a recluse and lavished ali bis affections on a stray cat he had picked up and which he had called Lady Gay. It had been with him a year when one morning old Adam, the individual who attended to the cleaning of the windows and the lighting of the fires of his apartment, said to him, “Mr, Billings, you value that cat, don’t you?” “That cat —Ladv Gay—of course I do.” “Well, then, beware sir. There’s a lady trying to steal her.” “What!” cried Billings, “Yes, indeed, sir. She lies in wait at the door, aud once she put her hand through the grating—yes, indeed, sir, and had Lady Gay by the neck, but I called out ‘Who’s there?’ and she fled.” For several days Mr. Billings kept close watch and nothing happened. At last he bethought him of a plan. He went out in a cab, left it a few blocks away and returned, re-entered the building by a side door around the corner and hid in his room, leaving the door on a crack aud holding tight to a long ribbon around pussy's neck. For a time all was still. Then a faint rustle of skirts in the hall.

“Pussy!” cried a soft voice—“pussy!” The steps came nearer. A woman appeared at the uflor. “Pussy, pussy, pussy!” she called . and entered. “You dating,” she cried, “I have you at last.” Then suddenly a man s hand eame down on her arm and the gasligh ff glared over the room. “So I’ve caught you,” said Bachelor Billings. “You're trying to steal my cat.” The lady struggled and shrieked. Mr. Biliings looked at her. “What is your name?” he asked. *:I am Mrs. White,” she answered. “You were Kitty Lester?” “Yes,” she faltered “Do you know me?” “Yes, you are Benjamin Billings!” So they met again, he and the girl who hau jilted him. He was elderly, she was middle-aged; and the only friend either one possessed was a cat. “So, after owing you so much misery, madam, you have come at this late day to rob me of my only solace,” said Bachelor Billings, “Ah, indeed, it is the other way,” said the lady, “After breaking my heart in my youth you come in my old age and steal my faithful frieud, my dear cat.”

“Now that everything is over,” she said, “I should like to ask you why you wrote a love letter to Minerva Brown.” “I never wrote a love letter to Minerva Brown, You wrote to me that I might marry her; but I didn’t want her,” said Mr. Billing 3. “I saw the letter,” said Mrs. White plaintively. My Dear Miss Minerva: —I offer you my “Heart and Hand," which you will do me much pleasure by accepting. To aid you in your noble work will indeed be a pleasant task. Benjamin Billings. “I remember every word. She dropped it from her pocket in the Sunday school library. I knew your writing and picked it up and read it. Oh, how false you were." She looked up. Bachelor Billings stood staring at her wildly. “What!”- he gasped. “Has my life been wrecked by so absurd a mistake? Mrs. White, I thought you appreciated my poems?” “I did!”sobbed the widow. “They were charming. “You didn’t even know the name of the book," said Mr.Billing3. “You made a great mistake —yes, an idiotic mistake, ma’am! Miss Brown had written to me for a contribution for the fair. The object have forgotten what, but it was noble. I offered her the blue and gold edition of my poems, ‘Heart and Hand.’ The note referred to that. I don’t flatter myself that Miss Minerva would have me had I offered myself: but I did not want her either. Mrs. White gave a scream—not loud, but long. Mr. Billings thought that she was going to faint and caught her in his arms. Afterward they had a talk. When he escorted her home he carried Lady Gay under his left arm, while he "gave his right to the widow. Shortly after there was a wedding, and Lady Gay now runs around a cozy breakfast table set for two, rubbing hfcr nose affectionately against a soft dark cashmere morning gown.