With age the dog's back was likely to sag; and it seemed to me that it would have been a stronger and more practicable dog if it had had some more legs.

It had not begun to sag yet, but the shape of the legs showed that the undue weight imposed upon them was beginning to tell.
It had a long nose, and floppy ears that hung down, and a resigned expression of countenance.

I did not like to ask what kind of a dog it was, or how it came to be deformed, for it was plain that the gentleman was very fond of it, and naturally he could be sensitive about it.

From delicacy I thought it best not to seem to notice it too much.

No doubt a man with a dog like that feels just as a person does who has a child that is out of true.