ADVENTURE BY NIGHT

For some thirty-six hours after his parting with the Master, Finn
mourned silently in the big house, which overlooked the harbour and
was filled with brand-new luxuries, including the brightly polished
suits of mail and the carefully matured family portraits in the
hall. If Finn had been a year younger the Sandbrook family would
have learned from him the exact nature of the Irish Wolfhound howl,
and they would not have liked it at all. But, though Finn would be
capable of the howl as long as he lived, he had no mind to indulge
in it now. His grief was too deep for that and too understanding;
so understanding, indeed, that he was perfectly well aware that no
howls of his would bring the Master back to him. It was true he had
not understood the nature of the transaction which made him the
property of the Australian merchant; but he had clearly understood
that some grievous necessity had forced the Master to hand him over
to Mr. Sandbrook, and that his, Finn's, duty to the Master involved
remaining there in the house by the harbour.

But, as he saw it, his duty did not make it incumbent upon him to
enter into communication with a whole pack of people who had
nothing to do with the Master. In some dim way he comprehended that
he owed deference and obedience to Mr. Sandbrook; that the Master
had undertaken so much on his behalf; but he had no wish to become
familiar with the Sandbrook household; and the consequence was that
the daughters, and the servants--there were no sons at home--and
the lady of the house, while they admitted the magnificence of the
new acquisition's appearance, agreed in pronouncing him a rather
sulky animal. They showered caresses and foolish remarks upon him,
and he lay with his grey-black muzzle resting on outstretched
fore-legs, staring through them all at the door by which the Master
had disappeared. The only sign he would give of consciousness of the
presence of these other people, was in turning his head away from
them when they touched his muzzle. Once, when the younger daughter
of the house went so far as to sit down beside Finn, and bend her
head close down to his, he submitted courteously, though his nose
wrinkled with annoyance, until the young lady raised her head; and
then, very gently, lie rose, walked away from her to the mat beside
the door, and lay down there, with his nose close to the spot on
which the Master's feet had last rested in that house.

Finn was t