I tried to look ingratiating and let my tongue loll fetchingly out of the side of my mouth.
"Say!" he exclaimed harshly. "Now it's beginning to come back. You took my place while I was--God! have _you_ ever been introduced to a great big dog and told she's your wife? Well, damn it! you and Jimmie--Oh, hell, this is one godawful mess! What's been happening around here, anyhow? Am I going nuts?"
I pricked up my ears and gave a false, loving whine. I licked his stinking hands.
"Okay, okay," Winnie agreed. "It's not your fault. But what the hell happened is beyond me. I hate to think of those prime asses, Phil and Graham, in this market. And what happened to Virginia? That's one gal you didn't know about, Ponto. She's for me, and how!"
"Oh, the hell with it!" he growled. "If Jimmie doesn't like it, she knows what she can do about it. Let's go on home, Ponto, and just tell her man-to-man where she gets off."
He put his foot on the accelerator and whirled up the drive to come to a stop in front of Pook's Hill.
Before he had switched off the engine, the front door opened and Germaine appeared.
"Heavens!" she exclaimed, "you're back early. Have you changed your mind again?"
"Yep," Winnie said. "I decided to come back home, after all."
She smiled. "I'm glad," she told him. "I couldn't make out why you were so keen to go back to Hartford so soon after you got out. You come on in, darling, and Myrtle and I will take care of you. Gracious! There's blood on your cheek. Did you hurt yourself?"
Her voice was warm and loving and made my hair rise slightly. If he tried any monkey-business with her, I'd rip his throat out. I growled.
"Oh, good!" she laughed. "You got Ponto. Did he have a nice honeymoon, poor darling? Is Dalrymple satisfied? Would you like to put in for one of the pups?"
She laughed. "Oh, Winnie, he looks so shattered. He--what _did_ happen to your head, darling?"
He grinned. "We almost had an accident. I was headed towards the Parkway when a car backed out. We bumped into an apple-tree. No harm done but I was knocked out for a few minutes and I guess it must have shaken me up."
She lifted her face to his and kissed him until I could feel thick, hot rage mount inside my throat and force itself out in a deep rumbling growl.