It is something quite different from that and very much more real." Then she bent down ostensibly to pat the head of a little black cocker spaniel called Tommy which had been given to her as a puppy, a highly intelligent and affectionate animal that we both adored and that loved her as only a dog can love.

Really, I knew, it was to hide her tears, and fled from the room lest she should see mine.
As I went I heard the dog whimpering in a peculiar way, as though some sympathetic knowledge had been communicated to its wonderful animal intelligence.
That night I spoke to Bickley about the matter, repeating exactly what had passed.

As I expected, he smiled in his grave, rather sarcastic way, and made light of it.
"My dear Humphrey," he said, "don't torment yourself about such fancies.
They are of everyday occurrence among women in your wife's condition.
Sometimes they take one form, sometimes another.

When she has got her baby you will hear no more of them." I tried to be comforted but in vain.
The days and weeks went by like a long nightmare and in due course the event happened.

Bickley was not attending the case; it was not in his line, he said, and he preferred that where a friend's wife was concerned, somebody else should be called in.