She sighed, and sank back on the bench with a hopeless
feeling. Presently she bethought her of her little dog, whom she had not
seen all day. Jock had grown very dear to her heart, and was usually her
inseparable companion, except when she was busy with household tasks, to
which he had an extreme aversion. A mistress, in Jock's opinion, was a
person who fed one, and took one to walk, and patted one, and who was in
return to be loved desperately, and obeyed in reason. But sweeping, and
knocking brooms against one's legs, and paying no attention to one's
invitations to play or go for a walk, were manifest derelictions from a
mistress's duty; accordingly, when Hilda was occupied in the house, Jock
always sat in the back porch, with his back turned to the kitchen door,
and his tail cocked very high, while one ear listened eagerly for the
sound of Hilda's footsteps, and the other was thrown negligently
forward, to convey the impression that he did not really care, but only
waited to oblige her. And the moment the door opened, and she appeared
with her hat on, oh, the rapture! the shrieks and squeaks and leaps of
joy, the wrigglings of body and frantic waggings of tail that ensued!
So this morning, what with all the trouble, and with her knowledge of
his views, Hildegarde had not thought to wonder where Jock was. But now
it struck her that she had exchanged no greeting with him since last
night; that she had heard no little impatient barks, no flapping of tail
against the door by way of reminder.
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