I detected at once that she had fallen in love with my dog; that she came not to seek me, but to follow him, who had raced joyously from her at his first knowledge of my home-coming.
I was secretly proud of the exquisite thoroughness with which he now ignored her.

Again and again he assured me in her very presence that the woman was nothing, _could_ be nothing, to him.

I knew this well enough--I needed no protestations from him; but I thought it was well that she should know it.

I saw that he had probably consented to receive her addresses through a long afternoon, had perhaps eaten of her provender, and even behaved with a complaisance which could have led her to hope that some day she might be something to him.

But I knew that he had not persistently faced the peril of being trampled to death by me in his pulpy infancy--so great his fear of our separation--to let a mere woman come between us at this day.