Simon ?" By way of response, the big cat rubbed himself luxuriously against the man's shins, purring loudly.

Then, at a single lithe spring he was on Gavin's shoulder, making queer little whistling noises and rubbing his head lovingly against Brice's cheek.

Gavin made his way downstairs the cat still clinging to his shoulder, fanning his face with a swishing gray foxlike tail, digging curved claws back and forth into the cloth of his shabby coat, and purring like a distant railroad train.
Only when they reached the lower hallway did the cat jump from his shoulder and with a flying leap land on the top of a nearby bookcase.

There, luxuriously, Simon Cameron stretched himself out in a shaft of sunlight, and prepared for a nap.
Brice went on to the veranda.

On the lawn, scarce fifty feet away, Claire was gathering flowers for the breakfast table.
Very sweet and dainty was she in the flood of morning sunshine, her white dress and her burnished hair giving back waves of radiance from the sun's strong beams.
At her side walked Bobby Burns.