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on her plate, and thus relieved my feelings toa certain extent. When I was about to be thrown out for the last time, a voice came, saying: ‘‘ What's all this row about, eh?” And the master of this house appeared. ‘‘ This homeless cat tries my patience,” responded the maid. ‘It insists upon coming into the kitchen, do what I will.’ She showed me to him, snatching me up by the neck. And he, looking at my face, while twirling the black hair above his upper lip, at last said: «Keep it, then, and walked into a back room. He seemed a close-tongued man. The maid dashed me fretfully on to the kitchen floor. It was in this way that I came to settle in this house. . It is rarely that I meet my master in the house. ‘They say he is a teacher by profession. When he comes back from school, he usually shuts himself up in his study for the remainder of the day. The members of his family think him a very diligent scholar; and he himself is trying to appear as such. But in reality he is not so hard at work as his folk say. I often make a stealthy approach to his ‘‘den,” peep in, and not unfrequently find him taking a nap. Sometimes I even catch him in a ludicrous state, letting water drop from his mouth on to the book