Vixen O '^ <^ *^y ^ o 



(From Adam Bede) 



. • • ■ 



HP HE moment he appeared at the kitchen door 

 -*- with the candle in his hand, a faint whimper- 

 ing began in the chimney-corner, and a brown- 

 and-tan-coloured bitch, of that wise-looking breed 

 with short legs and long body, known to an 

 unmechanical generation as turnspits, came creep- 

 ing along the floor, wagging her tail, and hesitating 

 at every other step, as if her affections were 

 painfully divided between the hamper in the 

 chimney-corner and the master, whom she could 

 not leave without a greeting. 



" Well, Vixen, well then, how are the babbies ? " 

 said the schoolmaster, making haste towards the 

 chimney-corner, and holding the candle over the 

 low hamper, where two extremely blind puppies 

 lifted up their heads towards the light, from a nest 

 of flannel and wool. Vixen could not even see 

 her master look at them without painful excite- 

 ment : she got into the hamper and got out again 

 the next moment, and behaved with true feminine 

 folly, though looking all the while as wise as a 

 dwarf with a large old-fashioned head and body 

 on the most abbreviated legs. 



. • • • 



George Eliot. 

 190 



