"It sounds plausible."
"It's the only possible explanation. And when once we've admitted that animals have a special sense which we have not, I don't quite see how we are to say what the limitations of that sense are. It is not really a bit more wonderful that Zero should have the sense of impending danger than that a crab, eighty miles from home, should be able to find its way back."
"Well, you may be right. I wish now that I'd asked that chap Smith a bit more about the dog."
A few days later one of the partners in Richard's business announced his intention of getting married. He was a junior partner, two years younger than Richard.
"Well, Bill," said Richard, after he had offered his congratulations, "what shall I give you for a wedding-present?"
"Give us that dog of yours."
"Never. Try again."
"Oh, I was only rotting. But, seriously, I'd as soon have a dog as anything. Not a bulldog—they're too ugly."
"It's a good, honest kind of ugliness. What breed then?"
"Gwen's keen on black poodles."