RUTH’s fever passed, but when she asked after the kitchen cat, Nurse feigned ignorance. There was no cat, she assured the doctor, only a child’s fevered imagination playing tricks. So the cat stayed in the kitchen; but Ruth in her nursery grew listless, and her recovery faltered.

Nurse Smith brought Ruth’s father to the nursery to scold or jolly her out of it. Ruth, she told him, worries herself with ‘fancies’. But Ruth had every comfort, protested her father. What was there to worry about? Taking a deep breath, Ruth told him that she missed her best friend. Who? asked Mr Lorimer, bewildered. Her cousin? No! The kitchen cat. At once her father ordered the raggedy little creature to be found and brought in, and mortally offended Nurse by delegating the task to her.

Ruth soon recovered, but life in Gower Street had changed. For Mr Lorimer found he had lost interest in his books and dinner engagements. He now preferred to spend his evenings at home with Ruth - and of course, the kitchen cat.