And that wink said , or seemed to say , plainly : `` Be a sport . Come down here and play with me . A fig for your Aunt Augusta ! '' A wild , daring , absurd idea flashed into Jims ' brain . Could he ? He could ! He would ! He knew it would be easy . He had thought it all out many times , although until now he had never dreamed of really doing it . 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 XXXXX the centre of it was a little tea table ; sitting by the table reading was a lady in a black dress .
Beyond To after for from in on over through with