"Oh, dear," Antonin said sadly, "you scared her away."
Glaring at the empty corner of the sitting room he went on, "And you might as well leave off the banjo playing until I'm done talking, thank you very much."
He leaned back in his chair to smile at Morag, "Such a rude cat, to try to interrupt you. I should consider having him fixed if his behavior doesn't improve." He looked her over a bit more carefully, "I see you don't have the nasty, spotted version of whatever this is. I'm afraid I'd be quite the mess if I hadn't cast a cleaning charm on this chair before I took to it."