The dog's eyes met hers; she turned to the servants with a perplexed gesture. "Is the brougham at the door?" asked the young mistress of the house. The footman signified that it was. "Then tell Phelan to come here at once." Phelan, the coachman, arrived, large, rosy, freshly shaven, admirably correct. "Phelan," said the young mistress, "look at that dog." The coachman promptly fixed his eyes on the wagging bull-terrier. In spite of his decorous gravity a smile of distinct pleasure slowly spread over his square, pink face until it became a subdued simper. "Is that a well-bred dog, Phelan?" demanded the young mistress. "It is, ma'am," replied Phelan, promptly. "Very well bred?" "Very, ma'am." "Dangerous?" "In a fight, ma'am." Stifled enthusiasm swelled the veins in the coachman's forehead. Triumphant paeans of praise for the bull-terrier trembled upon his lips; but he stood rigid, correct, a martyr to his perfect training. "Say what you wish to say, Phelan," prompted the young mistress, with a hasty glance at the dog. "Thanky, ma'am.... The bull is the finest I ever laid eyes on.... He hasn't a blemish, ma'am; and the three years of him doubled will leave him three years to his prime, ma'am.... And there's never another bull, nor a screw-tail, nor cross, be it mastiff or fox or whippet, ma'am, that can loose the holt o' thim twin jaws.... Beg pardon, ma'am, I know the dog." "You mean that you have seen that dog before?" "Yes, ma'am; he won his class from a pup at the Garden. That is 'His Highness,' ma'am, Mr. Langham's champion three-year." She had already stooped to caress the silent, eager dog--timidly, because she had never before owned a dog--but at the mention of his master's name she drew back sharply and stood erect. "Never fear, ma'am," said the coachman, eagerly; "he won't bite, ma'am--" "Mr. Langham's dog?" she repeated, coldly; and then, without another glance at either the dog or the coachman, she turned to the front door; buttons swung it wide with infantile dignity; a moment later she was in her brougham, with Phelan on the box and the rigid footman expectant at the window. II Seated in a corner of her brougham, she saw the world pass on flashing wheels along the asphalt; she saw the April sunshine slanting across brown-stone mansions and the glass-fronted facades of shops; ... she looked without seeing. So Langham had sent her his dog! In the first year of her widowhood she had first met Langham; she was then twenty-one. In the second year of her widowhood Langham had offered himself, and, with the declaration on his lips, had seen the utter hopelessness of his offer. They had not met since then. And now, in the third year of her widowhood, he offered her his dog!