About This Book
THE servants had gathered in the front hall to inspect the new arrival-cook, kitchen-maid, butler, flanked on the right by parlor-maids, on the left by a footman and a small buttons. The new arrival was a snow-white bull-terrier, alert, ardent, quivering in expectation of a welcome among these strangers, madly wagging his whiplike tail in passionate silence. When the mistress of the house at last came down the great stone stairway, the servants fell back in a semi-circle, leaving her face to face with the white bull-terrier. "So that is the dog " she said, in faint astonishment. A respectful murmur of assent corroborated her conclusion. 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."
