I waited until Mary had had plenty of time to take the others to the drawing-room and leave them there, and then I got up and stole out into the entry and down the stairs. There was no one in the hall below, but I could hear the visitors talking and laughing beyond the curtains of the drawing-room door. I slipped between the curtain and the side of the doorway, and then I was in the room.
It was full of people talking and laughing, and at first no one noticed me. The mistress was sitting at a table pouring something into a cup. One lady was sitting near her with Fifine in her lap, and Prince Coco and Bijou were waiting in front of the table for cake. A gentleman was standing near the table with a cup in his hand. He was the first one to notice me.
“There’s another little dog,” he said. “Is this your dog, too, Mrs. Stanford?”
Then the mistress saw me. She gave a cry. “Oh, it’s that miserable little stray,” she said. “He came here at the time of the blizzard, and howled at the door. Tommy found him and brought him in, and begged to keep him for awhile. I don’t know how the dog managed to steal in here. Ring the bell, please, for James to take him away.”
When she said that I knew I’d have to hurry if I wanted the people to see my tricks, so first I rolled over and played “dead dog,” and then I sat up and grinned and waved my paws, and then I barked.
“My word! He’s a clever little chap,” said the gentleman, and he tossed me a bit of cake.
It fell on the floor beside me, and quick as a flash Bijou jumped to get it. But I was quicker than he was. I growled and shoved him aside and grabbed it up and swallowed it.
I sat up and waved my paws.
I guess Bijou was disappointed and so he felt like fighting me. Maybe he was jealous, too, because the gentleman noticed me. At any rate before I knew what he was going to do he jumped on me with a snarl and bit me.