Strange and even absurd as it was, it seemed to her that a cat was pressing and pressing down upon her breast.

There could be no mistaking the feline presence.

Now with a sudden energy of the body, she threw the Thing from her, and heard it drop, with the softness of feline feet, on the Indian rug upon the floor.
Then she sprang out of bed, and, feeling for the matches, lit a candle on the small table beside her bed, and moved it round searching for what she thought to be a cat.

It was not to be seen.

She looked under the bed; it was not there: under the washstand, under the chest of drawers, under the improvised dressing-table; and no cat was to be found.