He was cringing, cowering, with closed eyes, flattened to the ground, and sniffing softly, in an agony of terror! It was dreadful to see so noble a beast in such a state, and probably more shocking to Julianna who had affection for him than to me. "I cannot understand Laddie's acting that way," she said in a vexed tone. "He has done it twice now in the last two days. What can have happened to him?" "He is very old, isn't he?" I inquired. "Yes," she said, and a little coquettish smile flitted across her face. "He is older than I am. Come, Laddie. Come here, sir. What's the matter, old pal?" "Age," said I. "There has never been a dog grow old in our family that he didn't sooner or later develop a kind of second puppyhood. I have seen them do all manner of inexplicable things, and one old, toothless, wire-haired terrier used to snap at his shadow on the wall." "I should hate to have him die," said Julianna when we were on the street again. She put her arm about his shaggy neck and I wished that I were he. At her door I took off my glove. It was done unconsciously, but she saw it--she took off one of hers. Then she laughed and put her hand in mine. After that walk I became the victim of all the mental follies which descend upon a man so thoroughly in love. My work suffered. I found myself at one moment reading down a page of digests of cases prepared for me by my assistants; in the next, I would be sitting again in Judge Colfax's easy-chair, and before me I could see Julianna's smiling lips, reflecting the lamplight upon their moist surfaces. In her name I would drive myself to my task again, and then, without knowing when the transition occurred, I would be standing on a gravel path dappled with sunlight and the dancing shadows of maple leaves, and she would be standing before me again with the breeze moving brown-and-gold strands of hair at the edge of her firm white neck. It is doubtful whether I thought of Judge Colfax, or chess, or the strange meeting in the garden, or the Sheik at all. I wondered about nothing save the question of how soon I could say to Julianna what lay in my heart to say to her. Therefore it was necessary for me to review in my mind many things when, upon waking a morning or two afterward, I found, among the letters which my man had brought to the chair beside my bed, a note from the girl herself. I did not know at first that it was from her: I had never seen her writing before. I remember that I said, "Who can this be?" and that I studied the outside for several moments before I opened the envelope. "My father," it said, "has not been very well, I think. I wish that you could make a point of calling on him at the court-house some afternoon this week. I want to know if the change in him rests partly in my own imagination. You could determine this at once. I would be so grateful. J. COLFAX.--P.S. Why not induce him to ask you to dinner. His indiscreet daughter would be delighted. J. C."