YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART 



but a dull pain was growing in my little 

 breast. 



I had slipped and fallen across the car- 

 riage step some years before, and hit hard 

 on its iron edge; but the injury did not show 

 as anything serious for a long while. Now, 

 however, it grew rapidly worse, and despite 

 my best efforts to mingle with the life and 

 pleasures of the household, mamma's anx- 

 ious eyes saw I was hiding my suffering. 

 Papa's face was very sad, when she told him 

 her grave fears, and they called a kind and 

 skilled veterinary surgeon from the adjoin- 

 ing town. He, too, shook his head gravely, 

 when he examined my ailment, and said: 



'I fear I can do nothing; she is too deli- 

 cately organized to survive the treatment, 

 even if there were a chance of cure/" and he 

 added in a low voice: 



'Madam, I must tell you I have never 

 been able to save a little dog, after that sad, 

 haunted look comes into their beautiful 

 eyes. There is something very strange and 

 mysterious about it; they can read fate and 

 the future far better than we; and I must 

 say, used to these things as I am, as a sur- 

 geon for many years, the look that many a 

 294 



