74 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



ally, however, her conscience carried the day, and as soon as 

 he was evidently gone she could not bear to stay behind. 



My father was always fond of dogs, and as a young man 

 had the power of stealing away the affections of his sister's 

 pets ; at Cambridge, he won the love of his cousin W. D. 

 Fox's dog, and this may perhaps have been the little beast 

 which used to creep down inside his bed and sleep at the 

 foot every night. My father had a surly dog, who was de- 

 voted to him, but unfriendly to every one else, and when be 

 came back from the Beagle voyage, the dog remembered 

 him, but in a curious way, which my father was fond of 

 telling. He went into the yard and shouted in his old man- 

 ner ; the dog rushed out and set off with him on his walk, 

 showing no more emotion or excitement than if the same 

 thing had happened the day before, instead of five years 

 ago. This story is made use of in the Descent of Man, 2nd 

 Edit. p. 74. 



In my memory there were only two dogs which had 

 much connection with my father. One was a large black 

 and white half-bred retriever, called Bob, to which we, as 

 children, were much devoted. He was the dog of whom 

 the story of the " hot-house face " is told in the Expression 

 of the Emotions. 



But the dog most closely associated with my father was 

 the above-mentioned Polly, a rough, white fox-terrier. She 

 was a sharp-witted, affectionate dog ; when her master was 

 going away on a journey, she always discovered the fact by 

 the signs of packing going on in the study, and became low- 

 spirited accordingly. She began, too, to be excited by see- 

 ing the study prepared for his return home. She was a 

 cunning little creature, and used to tremble or put on an 

 air of misery when my father passed, while she was waiting 

 for dinner, just as if she knew that he would say (as he did 

 often say) that " she was famishing." My father used to 

 make her catch biscuits off her nose, and had an affection- 

 ate and mock-solemn way of explaining to her before-hand 

 that she must " be a very good girl." She had a mark on 

 her back where she had been burnt, and where the hair had 

 re-grown red instead of white, and my father used to com- 

 mend her for this tuft of hair as being in accordance with 

 his theory of pangenesis ; her father had been a red bull- 

 terrier, thus the red hair appearing after the burn showed 

 the presence of latent red gemmules. He was delightfully 

 tender to Polly, and never showed any impatience at the 



