han sixteen--turned with a startled,
doubting look to the dog.

"If you don't b'lieve it, miss, look at the vite spot on the bridge of
'is nose," said Slidder, with a self-satisfied nod to the lady and a
supremely insolent wink to the footman.

"Pompey!" exclaimed the girl, holding out a pair of the prettiest little
gloved hands imaginable.

My doggie broke from my grasp with a shriek of joy, and sprang into her
arms. She buried her face in his shaggy neck and absolutely hugged him.

I stood aghast. The footman smiled in an imbecile manner.

"You'd better not squeeze quite so hard, miss, or he'll bust!" remarked
the waif.

Recovering herself, and dropping the dog somewhat hurriedly, she turned
to me with a flushed face and said--

"Excuse me, sir; this unexpected meeting with my dog--"

"_Your_ dog!" I involuntarily exclaimed, while a sense of unmerited
loss began to creep over me.

"Well, the dog was mine once, at all events--though I doubt not it is
rightfully yours now," said the young lady, with a smile that at once
disarmed me. "It was stolen from me a few months after I had bought it
from this boy, who seems strangely altered since then. I'm glad,
however, to see that the short time I had the dog was sufficient to
prevent its forgetting me. But perhaps," she added, in a sad tone, "it
would have been better if it _had_ forgotten me."

My mind was made up.

"No, madam," said I, with decision; "it is well that the dog has not
forgotten you. I would have been surprised, indeed, if it had. It is
yours. I could not think of robbing you of it. I--I--am going to visit
a sick woman and cannot delay; forgive me if I ask permission to leave
the dog with you until I return in the afternoon to hand it formally
over and bid it farewell."

This was said half in jest yet I felt very much in earnest, for the
thought of parting from my doggie, even to such a fair mistress, cost me
no small amount of pain--much to my surprise, for I had not imagined it
possible that I could have formed so strong an attachment to a dumb
animal in so short a time. But, you see, being a bachelor of an
unsocial spirit, my doggie and I had been thrown much together in the
evenings, and had made the most of our time.

The young lady half laughed, and hesitatingly thanked me as she went
into the house, followed by Dumps, _alias_ Punch, _alias_ Pompey, who
never so much as cast one parting glance on me as I turned to leave. A
sh