delicate and reticent expression of sincere 

 affection. 



S This is not to deny the assertion that a 

 cat is sometimes fierce and cruel. The bird 

 maintains it and the mouse confirms it. But 

 it must be remembered that the charge usually 

 brought against her is one of special ferocity 

 distinguishing her, let us say, from the dog. 

 What is to be said, then, in mitigation of the 

 conduct of a terrier with a rat, of a greyhound 

 with a hare, or of a foxhound (or, for the 

 matter of that, of a man) with a fox ? Here 

 is fierceness on a large scale. Dinah, the 

 gentlest and mildest Welsh terrier that ever 

 begged pardon for existing, used to spend 

 hours at a rat-hole. She killed, not for food, 

 but for mere pleasure. Rufus, my spaniel, the 

 exemplar of kindness, had a particular dislike 

 (it would have been wrong to call it a distaste) 

 for hedgehogs. On a summer's night he used 

 to track them on the lawn, and I have known 

 him to bring three of these inoffensive beasts, 

 each as big as his head, one after another into 



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