“When he has been groomed, and has put some flesh on his bones,” pursued Arabella, serene in the conviction that her sentiments were being shared, “he will look very different. I am quite anxious to see him in a week or two!”
Mr. Beaumaris drew up his horses outside Lady Bridlington’s house! Arabella gave the dog a last pat, and set him on the seat beside his new owner, bidding him stay there. He seemed a little undecided at first, but being too bruised and battered to leap down into the road, he did stay, whining loudly. However, when Mr. Beaumaris, having handed Arabella up to the door, and seen her admitted into the house, returned to his curricle, the dog stopped whining, and welcomed him with every sign of relief and affection.
“Your instinct is at fault,” said Mr. Beaumaris. “Left to myself, I should abandon you to your fate. That, or tie a brick round your neck, and drown you.”
His canine admirer wagged a doubtful tail, and cocked an ear. “You are a disgraceful object!” Mr. Beaumaris told him. “And what does she expect me to do with you?” A tentative paw was laid on his knee. “Possibly, but let me tell you that I know your sort! You are a toadeater, and I abominate toadeaters. I suppose, if I sent you into the country my own dogs would kill you on sight.”
The severity in his tone made the dog cower a little, still looking up at him with the expression of a dog anxious to understand.
“Have no fear!” Mr. Beaumaris assured him, laying a fleeting hand on his head. “She clearly wishes me to keep you in town. Did it occur to her, I wonder, that your manners, I have no doubt at all, leave much to be desired? Do your wanderings include the slightest experience of the conduct expected of those admitted into a gentleman’s house? Of course they do not!” A choking sound from his groom, made him say over his shoulder: “I hope you like dogs, Clayton, for you are going to wash this specimen.”
“Yes, sir,” said his grinning attendant.
“Be very kind to him!” commanded Mr. Beaumaris. “Who knows? he may take a liking to you.”
But at ten o’clock that evening, Mr. Beaumaris’s. butler, bearing a tray of suitable refreshments to the library, admitted into the room a washed, brushed, and fed mongrel, who came in with something as near a prance as could be expected of one in his emaciated condition. At sight of Mr. Beaumaris, seeking solace from his favourite poet in a deep winged chair by the fire, he uttered a shrill bark of delight, and reared himself up on his hind legs, his paws on Mr. Beaumaris’s knees, his tail furiously wagging, and a look of beaming adoration in his eyes.
Mr. Beaumaris lowered his Horace. “Now, what the devil—?” he demanded.