ered by a well-known
Irish sportsman for the biggest Irish Wolfhound in the Show. And so
Finn sat in state beneath a sort of dome consisting of no fewer
than seven trophies. It seemed a little hard on that magnificent
hound, his sire, who occupied the next bench, under the shelter of
but one solitary red card. But Dermot Asthore was a philosopher,
and, as has been said, weary of shows. He lay curled, like a great
cat, and slept stolidly, presenting nothing more conscious to the
passing throng than a small triangular section of one blood-shot
eye.

With Finn matters were otherwise. His numerous trophies won him
much attention, even from the large majority who were ignorant of
his great technical claims to fame. There was always a little group
in front of Finn's bench, and those of his admirers who had claims
upon the Master--besides many who had none--were continually begging
that he should be taken down from the bench, so that they might
admire his full stature. Then there were newspaper men with cameras
and note-books; and there were dealers with cheque-books, and a
ready hand and eye for deprecation. But these were given no sort of
encouragement by the Master. Finn received as much attention in the
evening papers that day as any leader of human society; and in the
papers devoted to doggy interests, a great deal more. He was
conscious of more of this than you might suppose, even though he
could not read newspapers: but the thing he was most keenly
conscious of was the fact that he had managed greatly to please the
Master and the Mistress of the Kennels. Finn felt happy and proud
about this, but, although he was taken down from the bench several
times and led into out-of-the-way corners where his chain could be
removed and he was able to stretch his limbs, still, he became
pretty thoroughly tired of the publicity and racket of the Dog Show
before he was led out of the building at ten o'clock that night,
with Kathleen, by the Master. The Mistress had gone home to Tara,
early in the evening; but the Master was sleeping in lodgings near
the Palace, which he had engaged on the clear understanding that he
was allowed to bring the Wolfhounds there with him. Finn had not
realized as yet that one of the penalties of the fame that he had
won lay in the fact that he was obliged to spend another two whole
days in the show building.

But though Finn and Kathleen knew it not, their lot was a far more
fortunate one than that of t