king, when you went away--_after_ you had
quite gone. You would laugh to see me at my dinner--Flush and
me--Flush placing in me such an heroic confidence, that, after he has
cast one discriminating glance on the plate, and, in the case of
'chicken,' wagged his tail with an emphasis, ... he goes off to the
sofa, shuts his eyes and allows a full quarter of an hour to pass
before he returns to take his share. Did you ever hear of a dog before
who did not persecute one with beseeching eyes at mealtimes? And
remember, this is not the effect of _discipline_. Also if another than
myself happens to take coffee or break bread in the room here, he
teazes straightway with eyes and paws, ... teazes like a common dog
and is put out of the door before he can be quieted by scolding. But
with _me_ he is sublime! Moreover he has been a very useful dog in his
time (in the point of capacity), causing to disappear supererogatory
dinners and impossible breakfasts which, to do him justice, is a feat
accomplished without an objection on his side, always.

So, when you write me such a letter, I write back to you about Flush.
Dearest beloved, but I have read the letter and felt it in my heart,
through and through! and it is as wise to talk of Flush foolishly, as
to fancy that I _could say how_ it is felt ... this letter! Only when
you spoke last of breaking off with such and such recollections, it
was the melancholy of the breaking off which I protested against, was
it not? and _not_ the insufficiency of the recollections. There might
have been something besides in jest. Ah, but _you_ remember, if you
please, that _I_ was the first to wish (wishing for my own part, if I
could wish exclusively) to break off in the middle the silken thread,
and you told me, not--you forbade me--do you remember? For, as
happiness goes, the recollections were enough, ... _are_ enough for
_me_! I mean that I should acknowledge them to be full compensation
for the bitter gift of life, _such as it was_, to me! if that
subject-matter were broken off here! 'Bona verba' let me speak
nevertheless. You mean, you say, to run all risks with me, and I don't
mean to draw back from my particular risk of ... what am I to do to
you hereafter to make you vexed with me? What is there in marriage to
make all these people on every side of us, (who all began, I suppose,
by talking of love,) look askance at one another from under the silken
mask ... and virtually hate one another throu