o the same, we scoured the neighbourhood instead.
The afternoon passed without any sign of Robert, and when bedtime came
(he always slept in our room) and still no signs of our pet, I thought
we should both have gone mad. Of course, we advertised, selecting the
most popular and, accordingly, the most likely papers, and we resorted
to other mediums, too, but, alas! it was hopeless. Our darling little
Robert was irrevocably, irredeemably lost. For days we were utterly
inconsolable, doing nothing but mope morning, noon, and night. I cannot
tell you how forlorn we felt, nor how long we should have remained in
that state but for an incident which, although revealing the terrible
manner of his death, gave us every reason to feel sure we were not
parted from him for all time, but would meet again in the great
hereafter. It happened in this wise: I was walking along W---- Street
one evening when, to my intense joy and surprise, I suddenly saw my
darling standing on the pavement a few feet ahead of me, regarding me
intently from out of his pathetic brown eyes. A sensation of extreme
coldness now stole over me, and I noticed with something akin to a shock
that, in spite of the hot, dry weather, Robert looked as if he had been
in the rain for hours. He wore the bright yellow collar I had bought him
shortly before his disappearance, so that had there been any doubt as to
his identity that would have removed it instantly. On my calling to him,
he turned quickly round and, with a slight gesture of the head as if
bidding me to follow, he glided forward. My natural impulse was to run
after him, pick him up and smother him with kisses; but try as hard as I
could, I could not diminish the distance between us, although he never
appeared to alter his pace. I was quite out of breath by the time we
reached H---- Street, where, to my surprise, he stopped at No. 90 and,
turning round again, gazed at me in the most beseeching manner. I can't
describe that look; suffice it to say that no human eyes could have been
more expressive, but of what beyond the most profound love and sorrow I
cannot, I dare not, attempt to state. I have pondered upon it through
the whole of a mid-summer night, but not even the severest of my mental
efforts have enabled me to solve it to my satisfaction. Could I but do
that, I feel I should have fathomed the greatest of all mysteries--the
mystery of life and death.

"I do not know for how long we stood there looking at on