Anything was better than this drear solitude throughout the million hours before the first of the maids should be stirring or the first of the farmhands report for work.

Yes, night was a disgusting time; and it had not one single redeeming trait for the puppy.
Lad was not even consoled by the knowledge that he was guarding the slumbrous house.

He was not guarding it.

He had not the very remotest idea what it meant to be a watchdog.

In all his five months he had never learned that there is unfriendliness in the world; or that there is anything to guard a house against.
True, it was instinctive with him to bark when People came down the drive, or appeared at the gates without warning.