The "very pictur'" of the dog, he said, and it was true. Ah! this
touched him, this little photograph of Pike.
"Dear little chap," he said to himself as he looked. "My dear little
chap."
And then an instantaneous desire to show it to his lady came over him, and
he went back to the sitting-room in haste.
There she was--the post had come for her too, it seemed, and she looked up
with an expression of concentrated fierceness from a missive she was
reading as he entered the room. Her marvellous self-control banished all
but love from her eyes after they had rested on him for an instant, but
his senses--so fine now--had remarked the first glance, just as his eye
had seen the heavy royal crown on the paper as she hastily folded it and
threw it carelessly aside.
"Darling!" he said "Oh! look! here is a picture of Pike!"
And if it had been the most important document concerning the fate of
nations the lady could not have examined it with more enthralled interest
and attention than she did this snapshot photograph of a rough terrier
dog.
"What a sweet fellow!" she said. "Look at his eye! so intelligent; look at
that _patte_! See, even he is asking one to love him--and I do--I do--"
"Darling!" said Paul in ecstasy, "oh, if we only had him here, wouldn't
that be good!"
And he never knew why his lady suddenly threw her arms round his neck, and
kissed him with passionate tenderness and love, her eyes soft as a dove's.
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