An odd difference between "cat file" and "cat<file"

["Tom Gloger"3974 97320]

>  I frankly don't know why there is a difference between cat ab* and cat <ab*.
>  It seems to me that file name expansion should be done before anything else.

So tell me, what would you expect to see if ab* matched two or more files?
-- 
			Tom Gloger
			AT&T Teletype Corporation
			Skokie, Illinois
			ihnp4!ltuxa!tty3b!tag