She had a fluttered, flustered look. Her breath came short. Lady
O'Gara wondered if her heart was strong.

"I've been expecting you any day at all, m'lady," she went on. "You
didn't say when you'd come, but you said you'd come and I've been
expecting you, though I used to say to myself, 'She won't come yet:
it's too soon to be expecting her. Maybe 'tis in a month's time or six
weeks she'd be coming, with the little dog and the young lady. She
wouldn't be remembering. Hasn't she her beautiful son at home?'"

Lady O'Gara was touched. She had forgotten how very lonely Mrs. Wade's
lot must be. After all, Susan Horridge could not be very much of a
companion to Mrs. Wade, who, despite the humility of her manner, was
evidently a person of some education and refinement.

"We shall come oftener now," she said. "It has been a rather busy
time. I am sure Stella will come often to see you and the dog. We
must find a name for him. I once knew a man who called his dog,
Dog,--just that. We must find something better than that."

She was talking to set Mrs. Wade at her ease. Mrs. Wade lit the lamp;
apologizing for the darkness of the firelit room. The deep pink shade
flooded the room with rosy light. There was a tea-table set in the
background. Lady O'Gara had a passing wonder as to whether the table
had been set daily in expectation of their visit.

"Now, what do you think of your dog?" Stella asked, as soon as the lamp
was lit. "See how he has made himself at home already, lying on his
side on the hearthrug as though he was a big dog, and not a ridiculous
tumbling-over puppy." Mrs. Wade knelt down obediently to receive the
puppy's large paw, with more than a suspicion of white about the toes,
which Stella laid in her hand. As the two heads met together it
occurred to Lady O'Gara that the hair grew similarly on the two heads,
close, silken, rippling.

She watched Mrs. Wade take the dog's paws and hold them against her
breast. A very lonely woman, she said to herself. There had been
something of passion in the little act and in the way she laid her
cheek against the dog's head.

"I can see he's going to have a most lovely time," said Stella
approvingly. "We'll call him Terry, I think, after Mr. Terry O'Gara.
All my dogs are called after my friends. I haven't a Terry yet,
though."

"Oh, no, not that name, please," Mrs. Wade said. "Let me call him
Keep, if you don't mind, Miss. He's going to keep me