“No doubt it is your dog!” I said, calmly. “But you must wait until I have finished the bandage. You should take better care of your animals! Perhaps you don’t know that its leg is broken.”
He got down on his knees at once without glancing at me again. He seemed to have forgotten my very existence.
“Lawless,” he exclaimed, softly—“little lady, little lady, what have you been up to? Oh, you silly little woman!”
The animal, with the rank ingratitude of its kind, wriggled frantically out of my grasp and fawned about its master in a paroxysm of delight. I was so completely forgotten that I was able to observe him at my ease. His face and voice had changed like magic. Then I saw that his features, though irregular, were powerful and not ill-shaped, and that his ugly flannel shirt was at any rate clean. He continued to ignore my presence, and, taking the dog up into his arms, tenderly examined the fracture.
“Poor little lady!” he murmured. “Poor little Lawless. One of those damned traps of Harrison’s, I suppose. I shall kill that fellow some day!” he added, savagely, under his breath.
I rose to my feet and shook out my skirts. There are limits to one’s tolerance.
“You are perfectly welcome,” I remarked, quietly.
There was no doubt as to his having forgotten my presence. He looked up with darkened face. Lady Naselton was perfectly right. He was a very ugly man.
“I beg your pardon,” he said. “I had quite forgotten that you were here. In fact, I thought that you had gone away. Thank you for attending to the dog. That will do very nicely until I get it home,” he added, touching the bandage.
“Until you get it home!” I repeated. “Thank you! Do you think that you can bandage better than that?”