"Against rules!" said Arthur, crimson in the face--"against rules! Why,
Dig and I had one a year ago, only he died, poor beast; he had a mill
with a rat, and the rat got on to his nose, and punished him before--"

"Yes," said the master; "but I shall have to see whether it's allowed to
keep a dog. Meanwhile you must see he does not make a noise or become a
nuisance."

"All serene," replied Dig, who had already almost come to regard the new
master as a sort of brother-in-law of his own; "he's a great protection
against rats and thieves. My mother gave him to me--didn't she,
Smiley?"

Smiley was at that moment lying on his back all of a heap, with his limp
legs lifted appealingly in the air, and too much occupied in gasping to
vouchsafe any corroboration of his young master's depositions.

Railsford departed, leaving the whole question in an unsettled
condition, and not altogether satisfied with himself. He knew, the
moment he was outside the door, what he ought to have said; but that was
very little consolation to him. Nor was it till he was back in his own
room that he remembered he had not taken exception to the pistol. Of
course, having looked at it and said nothing, its owner would assume
that he did not disapprove of it. And yet he really could not sit down
and write, "Dear Grover,--Please say by bearer if pistols and bull-dogs
are allowed? Yours truly, M.R." It looked too foolish. Of course,
when he saw them written down on paper he knew they were not allowed;
and yet it would be equally foolish now to go back to the study and say
he had decided without inquiry that they were against rules.

He was still debating this knotty point when a knock at the door
apprised him that his expected guests had arrived. Alas! blunder number
two trod hard on the heels of number one! He had no tea or coffee, not
even a box of biscuits, to take off the edge of the interview and offer
a retreat for his own inevitable embarrassment and the possible shyness
of his visitors. The arrangements for that reception were as formal as
the invitations had been. Was it much wonder if the conference turned
out stiff and awkward? In the first place, as all four entered
together, and none of them were labelled, he was quite at a loss to know
their names. And it is a chilling beginning to a friendly chat to have
to inquire the names of your guests. He shook hands rather nervously
all round; and then, with an heroic effort at ea