"
Shutting the door, she felt her way across the room and came and sat down
on Timmy's bed. He was sitting up, wide awake.
She put her arms round him. "I'm so sorry," she said feelingly; "so
sorry, Timmy, about your poor cat! But you know, my dear, that if--if she
were left alive, we could never feel comfortable for a single moment. You
see, when an animal has done that sort of thing once, it may do it
again."
"Josephine would never do it again," said Timmy obstinately, and he
caught his breath with a sob.
"You can't possibly know that, my dear. She would of course have other
kittens, and then some day, when some perfectly harmless person happened
to come anywhere near her, she would fly at him or her, just as she did
at Mrs. Crofton."
"No, she wouldn't--she didn't do anything like that when she had her last
kittens."
"I know that, Timmy. But you heard what Dr. O'Farrell said."
"Dr. O'Farrell isn't God," said Timmy scornfully.
"No, my dear, Dr. O'Farrell is certainly not God; but he is a very
sensible, humane human being--and the last man to condemn even an animal
to death, without good reason."
There was a rather painful pause. Janet Tosswill felt as if the child
were withdrawing himself from her, both in a physical and in a mental
sense.
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