“Warily you aye should walk,
Watching not to stumble;
Men may safe on mountains stalk,
And on ant-hills tumble.”
So the day came when she tripped, and there was a loud smash. Then she whisked herself to the pole of a curtain hanging near. So quick she went that observers could not agree whether she touched the curtain on the way, or mounted with a hop, skip and jump.
Once there, she found that that perch had great natural advantages. It commanded a complete view of the back premises as well as the dining-room, and yet was not many yards from the table. So she always stayed there, for choice, afterwards.
The place visibly pleased her from its elevation. She liked looking down, and disliked looking up. She showed her preference with a naïve candour that left no room for doubt, and has always seemed to me to illustrate and illuminate the laws of Society.
Of course, she was regularly served. Whatever she called for was handed up. And more than once I recollect that we affected to forget her, and did not look at her or heed her. Then down she [245] ]came, and walked about on the table, helping herself and chattering in our faces, with many a grimace and “Oo-oo-oo,” our small, black Madame Sans-Gêne, with the big white eyebrows, the little Miss Free-and-Easy.
8. DOGS
Once it happened that Charlie was left in charge of a neighbour, as she was young and we had to go from home; and in the neighbour’s house a dog bit her. When next she saw my wife she flung her arms round my wife’s neck, and clung to her with sobs and moans, and all the gestures natural to her sex in affliction, and ever afterwards she seemed to feel that dogs were hostile.