When we were at dinner she was always asleep; but, with equal
regularity, she was always impatiently awaiting us at the breakfast
table.
A chair was set for her, of course, but never used, except as a
stepping-stone to the table. It did not suit her size, and we did not
have one specially made for her, as the giants did for Gulliver. She
so obviously did not want it that it would have been superfluous.
The knives and forks she examined curiously, but without admiration.
Like the Asiatics of old, she kept or made her fingers clean enough to
eat with, and desired no better implements. I never saw her use a
spoon, except to rap on the table.
Sitting upon the table, she faced my wife and watched her, as if she
felt, but in a friendly way, as Frederick the Great felt towards the
Emperor Joseph, whose portrait he kept in view, saying, "That is the
person to keep mine eye upon."
Though clever at imitation, she adhered to her own ways of eating and
drinking, and did not imitate ours. This may have been because her
habits of that kind were fixed before she came to us; but we thought
her way of lapping was like the cat's.
She did not remain seated upon the table, but walked about upon it,
like a _petite_ Madame Sans-Gêne, or little Miss Free-and-Easy. At
first she was circumspect in her movements and did no damage. But
familiarity brings carelessness, and carelessness catastrophes. As the
Chinese say, too:--
"Warily you aye should walk,
Watching not to stumble;
Men may safe on mountains stalk,
And on ant-hills tumble."
So the day came when she tripped, and there was a loud smash. Then she
whisked herself to the pole of a curtain hanging near. So quick she
went that observers could not agree whether she touched the curtain on
the way, or mounted with a hop, skip and jump.
Once there, she found that that perch had great natural advantages. It
commanded a complete view of the back premises as well as the
dining-room, and yet was not many yards from the table. So she always
stayed there, for choice, afterwards.
The place visibly pleased her from its elevation. She liked looking
down, and disliked looking up. She showed her preference with a naïve
candour that left no room for doubt, and has always seemed to me to
illustrate and illuminate the laws of Society.
Of course, she was regularly served. Whatever she called for was
handed up. And more than once I recollect that we affected to forget
her, and did not look at her or heed her. Then down she came, and
walked about on the table, helping herself and chattering in our
faces, with many a grimace and "Oo-oo-oo," our small, black Madame
Sans-Gêne, with the big white eyebrows, the little Miss Free-and-Easy.