stones at him?" she said.

"No, I wouldn't _hurt_ him.... What did you say his name was?"

"Mimi."

Harriett softened. She remembered. "When I was a little girl I had a cat
called Mimi. White Angora. Very handsome. And your name is----"

"Brailsford. I'm Dorothy."

Next time, when Mimi jumped on the lupins and broke them down, Dorothy
came again and said she was sorry. And she stayed to tea. Harriett
revealed herself.

"My father was Hilton Frean." She had noticed for the last fifteen years
that people showed no interest when she told them that. They even stared
as though she had said something that had no sense in it. Dorothy said,
"How nice."

_"Nice?"_

"I mean it must have been nice to have him for your father.... You don't
mind my coming into your garden last thing to catch Mimi?"

Harriett felt a sudden yearning for Dorothy. She saw a pleasure, a
happiness, in her coming. She wasn't going to call, but she sent little
notes in to Dorothy asking her to come to tea.

Dorothy declined.