ANECDOTES ABOUT DOGS 367 



the keen blue eyes, ceased to yelp. The proud proprie- 

 tor at the other end of the chain, looked as anxious as 

 a criminal in the dock. The other ladies made the most 

 of this moment of respite. They patted their dogs and 

 kissed them, and told them to be good little duckies of 

 doggies, and mamma would be so pleased! One 

 tempted her charge with a biscuit, another with half a 

 crown. The coin was held up above the dog's nose. 

 Doggie jumped, and scrambled and yelped just like 

 any of its human acquaintances. The shepherd looked 

 at each dog in turn, and wrote something in a book, 

 and then seven ladies and seven dogs left the ring. One 

 lady looked pleased, another fairly satisfied and the 

 rest as if somebody had blundered. The Pugs were all 

 indifferent. But the secret was out, there were no mys- 

 terious rites of an Esoteric creed. It was a dog show, 

 that of the ' Ladies' Kennel Association.' They have 

 survived their internecine troubles, and have more 

 members than they had before that dramatic split at the 

 Holborn restaurant and boast of more entries at this 

 show than ever they had before. Between seven hun- 

 dred and eight hundred dogs are staged. At a Ladies' 

 Show it is to be expected that some of the convention- 

 alities will be overthrown. There are, for instance, no 

 men prowling about, with cloth caps, buckskin leg- 

 gings, and wisps of straw, telling you that their Terrier 

 killed fifty rats in thirty seconds or that ' the Brindled 

 Bull was own sister to the best dawg that was ever 

 bred.' The exhibitors are ladies, elegantly dressed, who 

 sit and listen to the band with their Pugs and Spaniels, 



on their knees. It is the same with the dogs, there are 



24 



