To unhook the window and swing it open , to step out on the pine bough and from it to another that hung over the wall and dropped nearly to the ground , to spring from it to the velvet sward under the poplars -- why , it was all the work of a minute . With a careful , repressed whoop Jims ran towards the Very Handsome Cat . The cat rose and retreated in deliberate haste ; Jims ran after him . The cat dodged through the rose paths and eluded Jims ' eager hands , just keeping tantalizingly out of reach . Jims had forgotten everything except that he must catch the cat . He was full of a fearful joy , with an elfin delight running through it . He had escaped from the blue room and its ghosts ; he was in his Garden of Spices ; he had got the better of mean old Aunt Augusta . But he must catch the cat . The cat ran over the lawn and Jims pursued it through the green gloom of the thickly clustering trees . Beyond them came a pool of sunshine in which the old stone house basked like a huge grey cat itself . More garden was before it and beyond it , wonderful with blossom . Under a huge spreading beech tree in the centre of it was a little tea table ; sitting by the table reading was a lady in a black dress . The cat , having lured Jims to where he wanted him , sat down and began to lick his paws . He was quite willing to be caught now ; but Jims had no longer any idea of catching him . He stood very still , looking at the lady . She did not see him then and Jims could only see her profile , which he thought very beautiful . She had wonderful ropes of blue-black hair wound around her head . She looked so sweet that Jims ' heart beat . Then she lifted her head and turned her face and saw him . Jims felt something of a shock .
She was not pretty XXXXX all .
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