He did the only thing possible: he disregarded entirely the general company and addressed himself to the only person of ultimate importance--namely, Mrs.Cole.He lay down on all fours, looked up directly into her face, bared his teeth this time in a smile and not in a growl, and wagged his farcical tail.
Mrs.Cole's psychology was of the simplest: if you were nice to her she would do anything for you, but in spite of all her placidity she was sometimes hurt in her most sensitive places.

These wounds she never displayed, and no one ever knew of them, and indeed they passed very quickly--but there they occasionally were.

Now on what slender circumstances do the fates of dogs and mortals hang.

Only that afternoon Mr.Jellybrand, in the innocent self-confidence of his heart, had agreed with Miss Maple, an elderly and bitter spinster, that the next sewing meeting of the Dorcas Sisterhood should be held in her house and not at the Rectory.

He had told Mrs.Cole of this on his way upstairs to the nursery.