The landlady looked round suspiciously, as if to make sure the cat was not listening, "I will not deceive you, gentlemen," she said. "It do scratch, but not without you pulls its whiskers! It'll never do it," she repeated slowly, with a visible effort to recall the exact words of some written agreement between herself and the cat, "without you pulls its whiskers!"
"Much may be excused in a cat so treated," said Balbus, as they left the house and crossed to Number Seventy-three, leaving the landlady curtseying on the doorstep, and still murmuring to herself her parting words, as if they were a form of blessing, "not without you pulls its whiskers!"
At Number Seventy-three they found only a small shy girl to show the house, who said "yes'm" in answer to all questions.
"The usual room," said Balbus, as they marched in: "the usual back-garden, the usual cabbages. I suppose you can't get them good at the shops?"
"Yes'm," said the girl.
"Well, you may tell your mistress we will take the room, and that her plan of growing her own cabbages is simply admirable!"
