DOGS. 103 



disturbed. She crouched rather than walked round the 

 room, dragging her bonne louche over the rich folds of 

 the delicately-tinted silk damask curtains, as they lay 

 upon the ground, till she reached a very obscure corner 

 under the piano, where she proceeded to enjoy her- 

 self. As soon as the glorious music was concluded, 

 4 Did you see Fanny f ' was the exclamation ; and the 

 delinquent was dragged out before the last morsel 

 was devoured ; so there was proof positive. The next 

 mor^iing the cook told her mistress that she was in the 

 habit of stealing such morsels as I have described, and 

 hiding them, and that she only took them out to eat 

 when she (the cook) was gone to church. Poor Fanny's 

 reputation for refinement was for ever clouded. 



In the same house lived a larger spaniel, of the variety 

 which takes to the water, and named Flora. She was 

 an excellent house-dog, and, generally speaking, under 

 no restraint. Some alarm, however, occasioned by a 

 real or reported accident, caused the magistrate of the 

 town in which her master resided, to issue an order that 

 no dogs should leave the premises of their owners with- 

 out being muzzled. Accordingly, Flora, when she went 

 out with the servant, had this instrument put on. She 

 hated it at first, tried all she could to get it off, but at 

 length appeared to become indifferent to the confinement 

 which it produced. In consequence of this, it was 

 perhaps more carelessly buckled on, and one day it 

 came off, and the man stooped to put it in its place. 

 Flora, however, was too quick for him ; she took it in 

 her mouth, plunged with it into a neighbouring pond, 

 and when she reached the deepest part, dropped the 

 muzzle into it, and swam back, with her countenance 

 expressing delight. 



