ouse, and having entirely forgotten the trifling episode of the bite,
had unobtrusively come to make inquiries.

"Poor old boy!" said Edward Henry, stooping to pat the dog. "Did they
try to measure his tail with his hind leg?"

The gesture was partly instinctive, for he loved Carlo; but it also
had its origin in sheer nervousness, in sheer ignorance of what was
the best thing to do. However, he was at once aware that he had done
the worst thing. Had not Nellie announced that the dog must be got
rid of? And here he was fondly caressing the bloodthirsty dog! With
a hysterical movement of the lower part of her leg Nellie pushed
violently against the dog--she did not kick, but she nearly
kicked--and Carlo, faintly howling a protest, fled.

Edward Henry was hurt. He escaped from between the beds and from that
close, enervating domestic atmosphere where he was misunderstood by
women and disdained by infants. He wanted fresh air; he wanted bars,
whiskies, billiard-rooms and the society of masculine men-about-town.
The whole of his own world was against him.

As he passed by his knitting mother she ignored him and moved not. She
had a great gift of holding aloof from conjugal complications.

On the landing he decided that he would go out at once into the major
world. Half-way down the stairs he saw his overcoat on the hall-stand
beckoning to him and offering release.

Then he heard the bedroom door and his wife's footsteps.

"Edward Henry!"

"Well?"

He stopped and looked up inimically at her face, which overhung the
banisters. It was the face of a woman outraged in her most profound
feelings, but amazingly determined to be sweet.

"What do you think of it?"

"What do I think of what? The wound?"

"Yes."

"Why, it's simply nothing. Nothing at all. You know how that kid
always heals up quick. You won't be able to find the wound in a day or
two."

"Don't you think it ought to be cauterized at once?"

He moved on downwards.

"No, I don't. I've been bitten three times in my life by dogs. And I
was never cauterized."

"Well, I _do_ think it ought to be cauterized." She raised her voice
slightly as he retreated from her. "And I shall be glad if you'll call
in at Dr. Stirling's and ask him to come round."

He made no reply, but put on his overcoat and his hat and took his
stick. Glancing up the stairs he saw Nellie was now standing at the
head of them, under the electric light there, and watching him. He
knew