.

We're going over for the mail,--the Mistress and I.Want to come along ?" At once the melancholy in Lad's deep eyes gave place to puppy-like exultance.
While, naturally, he did not understand one word in ten of the Master's frequent prosy homilies to him, or of the Mistress's more melodious speech, yet, from puppyhood, he had been talked to by both of them.
And, as ever with a highbred collie, such constant conversation had borne ample fruit;--not only in giving the dog a startling comprehension of voice-meanings, but also in teaching him to understand many simple words and phrases.
For example, he recognized, as readily as would any five-year-old child, this invitation to go motoring.

And it banished the memory of Lady's fickleness.
This morning, for the first time since his accident, Lad was able to spring into the car-tonneau, unaided.

His hurt was all-but well.
Enthroning himself in the precise center of the rear seat, he prepared to enjoy every inch of the ride.
No matter how long or how tedious were these jaunts, Lad never went to sleep or ceased to survey with eager attention the myriad details of the trip.

There was something half-laughable, half-pathetic, in his air of strained interest.
Only when the Mistress and the Master both chanced to leave the car at the same time, at market or bank or postoffice, would Lad cease from this genial and absorbed inspection of everything in sight.