nd ran off. Been looking out for that the whole time! Ha,
ha!--deep that, eh?"

I agreed, with an inward shudder, that it was very deep, thinking
privately that, if this was a specimen of Bingo's usual treatment of
the natives, it would be odd if he did not find himself deeper still
before--probably _just_ before--he died.

"Poor, faithful old doggie!" murmured Mrs. Currie; "he thought Tacks
was a nasty burglar, didn't he? He wasn't going to see master robbed was
he?"

"Capital house-dog, sir," struck in the colonel. "Gad, I shall never
forget how he made poor Heavisides run for it the other day! Ever met
Heavisides of the Bombay Fusileers? Well, Heavisides was staying
here, and the dog met him one morning as he was coming down from the
bath-room. Didn't recognise him in 'pajamas' and a dressing-gown, of
course, and made at him. He kept poor old Heavisides outside the landing
window on top of the cistern for a quarter of an hour, till I had to
come and raise the siege!"

Such were the stories of that abandoned dog's blunderheaded ferocity to
which I was forced to listen, while all the time the brute sat opposite
me on the hearth-rug, blinking at me from under his shaggy mane with his
evil, bleared eyes, and deliberating where he would have me when I rose
to go.

This was the beginning of an intimacy which soon displaced all ceremony.
It was very pleasant to go in there after dinner, even to sit with
the colonel over his claret, and hear more stories about Bingo; for
afterward I could go into the pretty drawing-room and take my tea from
Lilian's hands, and listen while she played Schubert to us in the summer
twilight.

The poodle was always in the way, to be sure, but even his ugly black
head seemed to lose some of its ugliness and ferocity when Lilian laid
her pretty hand on it.

On the whole, I think that the Currie family were well disposed toward
me, the colonel considering me as a harmless specimen of the average
eligible young man,--which I certainly was,--and Mrs. Currie showing me
favour for my mother's sake, for whom she had taken a strong liking.

As for Lilian, I believed I saw that she soon suspected the state of my
feelings toward her, and was not displeased by it. I looked forward with
some hopefulness to a day when I could declare myself with no fear of a
repulse.

But it was a serious obstacle in my path that I could not secure
Bingo's good opinion on any terms. The family would often lament