CHAPTER V.

DAME MITCHELL’S CAT BAFFLES HIS ENEMY.

()VERJOYED at the recovery of her charge, and fearing
she might be again deprived of Mowmouth, and of the
benefits she anticipated to derive from her care of him,
Dame Mitchell became still more attentive and watchful.
Mowmouth, on his part, knowing the man he had to deal
with, determined to shun the butler, or, if needs were, to
fight him with teeth and claws. As for Daddy Sharpphiz,
it was enough for him to know his designs had been fru-
strated to make him persist in them; and he now desired the
ruin of poor, innocent Mowmouth, not out of mere jealousy
to Dame Mitchell, but out of enmity to the cat himself.
“Qh, intolerable vexation!” cried he, in a bitter tone;
“T ought to hide myself in a desert, or bury myself in the
bowels of the earth! What, I! Jeremy Sharpphiz, a ma-
ture man, a man of learning and experience, and, I may ven-
ture to say, a delightful companion, am overcome, baffled,
and duped by a pitiful cat! I left him at the bottom of
the river, and found him afterwards at the top of the house.
I wanted to sever him from his protectress, and have only
strengthened their attachment. I carried Dame Mitchell
to the garret to torment her, instead of which I had to wit-
ness her delight. The cat I believed to be dead has ap-
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