Only the Terror was serene.
"Surely those brutes I brought haven't got out of their cages," said Sir Maurice.
"Oh, no; those must be visiting cats," said the Terror calmly.
"Visiting cats ?" said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together.
"Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if ever they are left homeless they will know where to come," said the Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of guilelessness.
"Now that's a very clever idea!" she exclaimed.

"I must tell the managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can't do it, too.

But what are these cats doing ?" "It sounds as if they were quarreling," said the Terror calmly.
It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the din was ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish.

It was as if the voices of all the cats in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song.
The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the door--wide.

Cats did not come out.