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DORIS LESSING
for instance that she felt it was good for her to have a tie and
some responsibility. But no sooner was the cat out of kitten–
hood than all the neighbors complained. It was a tomcat,
ungelded, and making every night hideous. Finally the land–
lord said that either the cat or Judith must go, unless she was
prepared to have the cat "fixed." Judith wore herself out try–
ing to find some person, anywhere in Britain, who would be
prepared to take the cat. This person would, however, have to
sign a written statement not to have the cat "fixed." When
Judith took the cat to the vet to be killed, Betty told me she
cried for twenty-four hours.
"She didn't think of compromising? Mter all, perhaps the
cat might have preferred to live, if given the choice?"
"Is it likely I'd have the nerve to say anything so sloppy to
Judith? It's the nature of a male cat to rampage lustfully about,
and therefore it would be morally wrong for Judith to have
the cat fixed, simply to suit her own convenience."
"She said that?"
"She wouldn't have to
say
it, surely?"
A third incident was when she allowed a visiting young
American, living in Paris, the friend of a friend and scarcely
known to her, to use her flat while she visited her parents over
Christmas. The young man and his friends lived it up for ten
days of alcohol and sex and marijuana, and when Judith came
back it took a week to get the place clean again and the furn–
iture mended. She telephoned twice to Paris, the first time to
say that he was a disgusting young thug and if he knew what
was good for him he would keep out of her way in the future;
the second time to apologize for losing her temper. "I had a
choice either to let someone use my flat, or to leave it empty.
But having chosen that you should have it, it was clearly an
unwarrantable infringement of your liberty to make any
conditions at
all.
I do most sincerely ask your pardon." The
moral aspects of the matter having been made clear, she was
