They reached Mrs. Granger’s house, and while Leroy ran ahead with the dog in his arms, Anderson delayed a minute to pay the taxi with the last bill remaining in his pockets. Then he followed. It had been a costly and a wearisome quest, but Mrs. Granger’s relief and gratitude would be sufficient reward. In the doorway of the sitting room he paused a moment, smiling to himself at the scene before him. Leroy was down on his knees, playing with this quite unexpected and delightful new dog, and Mrs. Granger knelt beside him, one arm about her son’s neck. Captain MacGregor was there, but in a corner, so that one need not consider him in the picture—the peaceful lamp-lit room, the gentle mother and her child. “I’m very glad—” he began, when, at the sound of his voice, the dog sprang up and rushed at him, and was caught by Leroy just in the nick of time. He growled threateningly. “I guess I’d better tie him up,” said Leroy. “He doesn’t like Mr. Anderson.” “Why, how very strange!” Mrs. Granger exclaimed. Leroy did tie him up to the leg of a table. “But why doesn’t the poor little doggie like Mr. Anderson?” pursued Mrs. Granger, and there was something in her voice that dismayed the young man. “I don’t know,” he replied, briefly. “It’s very strange,” she remarked. “Very! But sit down, Mr. Anderson. Perhaps you were just a little bit rough in handling him—without meaning to be.” “No, he wasn’t!” Leroy asserted, indignantly. “He—” At this point the dog broke loose, flew at Anderson, and would have bitten him if Anderson had not prevented him—with his foot. “Oh!” cried Mrs. Granger. “Oh, Mr. Anderson, how could you! You kicked the poor little doggie!” “I—I simply pushed him—with my foot,” said Anderson. “He’s a bad-tempered little brute.” “Dogs are never bad-tempered unless they’re badly treated,” Mrs. Granger declared, with severity. “They always know a friend from a foe.” “All right!” the young man agreed. “Then I’m afraid I’m a foe.” He turned toward the door. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I’ll be getting along. I’m—I’m tired. Good evening!” “Good evening!” said Mrs. Granger and Captain MacGregor in unison. She let him go! He opened the front door and stepped out into the rain again, and never in his life had he felt so bitter, so disappointed, so cruelly, intolerably depressed. After all he had done, she let him go like this! Not even a word of thanks. Poor little doggie, eh? Halfway down the path he heard a shout; it was Leroy, rushing after him bareheaded through the rain. “Say!” he shouted. “You’re—” Words failed him, and he stretched out his hand, a rough, warm little hand, wet from the rain, sticky from lollypops. Yet Anderson was very glad to clasp it tight. “Good-by, old fellow!” he said. “Good-by, old fellow, yourself!” answered Leroy. And he sat on the gatepost, watching, and waving his hand as Anderson went down the road in the rainy dusk. IX