Lady Anne did not answer. She had pushed back those rebellious curls and was brooding the flower-like face.
"Dear heart!" was all she said aloud, and the rest was murmured under her breath.
She set the child on the floor and held out the little nerveless hand, still clenched on the biscuit, toward the bull-terrier.
"You must be careful with strange dogs, baby, particularly this breed. They aren't like any other sort of dog. Take it, Rock!"
Rock crunched the biscuit wastefully between his powerful jaws.
"No crumbs, sir!"
He sniffed up about a third of the biscuit, which he had let fall on the tiled floor.
"Say 'Thank you.'"
The animal gave the small fist that was tendered him three enormous licks, and glanced at his mistress out of his savage pink eyes.
"That's right! Mustn't ever bite this one, Rock! She isn't a cat, and never going to be one either, I know."