“You mean he’s too fat?” Dandy asked incredulously. “Of course, he’s better fed than yours.” She looked pityingly at the graceful spaniel, who slapped a fluffy tail against the road, but did not stir. “Grumphy has always had the same meals as ourselves. We never leave him to cooks. Perhaps you don’t care for dogs. Yours seems almost afraid to move!” She hugged the Labrador, who leaned his head against her and snored loudly, while the spaniel slapped again in welcome to one who, if not quite of the right figure, was nevertheless of the only correct shade. “Grumphy doesn’t know what it is to hear an unkind word!” Hamer Shaw laughed again, this time at the helpless disgust in Lancaster’s face. “You think he’d be all the better for it, I expect? Perhaps I agree with you, but he’s Dandy’s dog, you see. My little girl knows nothing of country ways yet, but she’ll learn. By the way, sir, they tell me you’ve a lot to do with the fishing, here. I’ve had some trouble over my private stretch of the river, Can you spare me a minute or two?” They fell into talk, and Dandy, excluded, wandered to the gap and stood looking at the joy-path of her stout trespasser. Grumphy was a dear, but he was certainly also a galumphing idiot. The agent-man would think she was in the habit of taking her walks with idiots. It was only the other day that her variety-troupe had danced through his evening meditation, and now her variety-dog had pranced through his corn. “It will straighten up in a day or two, with luck,” he broke suddenly into her thoughts, looking with her up the green aisle. “And if it doesn’t, there’s not much harm done. You needn’t put too much blame on your ten stone of dog.” “I don’t mean to blame him!” she flashed, colouring a little. “Didn’t I tell you he was looking for himself? I’m doing the same, if it comes to that. _I_ shall make mistakes, too. If I’m hard on him, I shall have to be hard on myself.” “You’ll both learn the quicker.” “Yes, but we’ve been spoilt--haven’t we, Grumphy boy? We shouldn’t take kindly to the whip.” “Sometimes the whip is the only teacher.” He checked himself then, feeling that the intimacy of the gap had misled him. He was in no mood to be friendly, and departed presently with a curt good-bye. Round the turn, he dropped his hand with a faint snap of the fingers, and the spaniel, close at his knee, thrust a gentle nose into his palm, looking up at him with worshipping eyes. “Starved, are you, old lady?” he asked, with a shrug. “Neglected? Half-cowed? How would you fancy yourself at the Royal, looking like that fat Astrakhan or Saskatchewan or whatever they call it? We’ll give him a bucketing some day over Ewrigg after rabbits. Perhaps he’ll have settled what he is, by that time, unless the keepers have settled _him_.” He mentioned the meeting to Helwise, and asked whether she had called yet. It seemed she had not.