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SCALLY: THE STORY OF A PERFECT GENTLEMAN. With Frontispiece. A KNIGHT ON WHEELS. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. Illustrated by Charles E. Brock. A SAFETY MATCH. With frontispiece. A MAN'S MAN. With frontispiece. THE RIGHT STUFF. With frontispiece.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK
[Illustration: THE LEADING OBJECT PROVED TO BE A SMALL, WET, SHIVERING, WHIMPERING PUPPY]
Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company MDCCCCXV
Copyright, 1914, by the Curtis Publishing Company Copyright, 1915, by Ian Hay Beith All Rights Reserved
"BETTERSEA trem? Right, miss!" My wife, who has been married long enough to feel deeply gratified at being mistaken for a maiden lady, smiled seraphically at the conductor, and allowed herself to be hoisted up the steps of the majestic vehicle provided by a paternal county council to convey passengers--at a loss to the ratepayers, I understand--from the Embankment to Battersea.
Presently we ground our way round a curve and began to cross Westminster Bridge. The conductor, whose innate cockney bonhomie his high official position had failed to eradicate, presented himself before us and collected our fares.
"What part of Bettersea did you require, sir?" he asked of me.
"We haven't been there before," added my wife, quite gratuitously.
The conductor smiled indulgently and punched our tickets.
"I'll tell you when to get down," he said, and left us.
For some months we had been considering the question of buying a dog, and a good deal of our spare time--or perhaps I should say of my spare time, for a woman's time is naturally all her own--had been pleasantly occupied in discussing the matter. Having at length committed ourselves to the purchase of the animal, we proceeded to consider such details as breed, sex, and age.
My wife vacillated between a bloodhound, because bloodhounds are so aristocratic in appearance, and a Pekinese, because they are _dernier cri_. We like to be _dernier cri_ even in Much Moreham. Her younger sister, Eileen, who spends a good deal of time with us, having no parents of her own, suggested an Old English sheep dog, explaining that it would be company for my wife when I was away from home. I coldly recommended a mastiff.
