TNI LBV 



133 



knew a man whose fiancee could use 

 such brutal language and abuse hospi- 

 tality to such an extent. I know that 

 Billy felt so, too, for I heard him ex- 

 plaining at length to Trilby when he 

 thought we were all asleep. 



A week later the Other Man startled 

 us at breakfast by asking this question : 



"Don't you think," he said, "that cru- 

 elty in a woman is a terrible thing?" 

 We all agreed that it was. 



"And beside," he said as he rose from 

 the table, "Trilby is not yellow in a 

 strict sense of the word." 



When he had gone we looked at each 

 other and whistled softly. So it had 

 been given to Trilby to wean the Other 

 Man from the affection of a most un- 

 worthy woman ! 



This was another of the useful ac- 

 tions of Trilby. 



Trilby's life must have been very 

 happy then, but even he had trials to 

 bear. In the case of the Spotted Dog, 

 I am bound to say he accepted them 

 with a fortitude which would have done 

 credit to the proudest hound in all 

 Sparta. The Spotted Dog must have 

 been possessed of the spirit of divina- 

 tion in no uncommon measure, for he 

 always knew when Trilby went village- 

 ward for oil. It was on these occasions 

 that the Spotted Dog lay in wait and 

 harried our messenger in the rear. It 

 all arose out of Trilby's acceptance of 

 the word Duty. Perhaps his definition 

 was too fine for modern manners ; but 

 if given a parcel to carry he deemed it 

 wrong, unfaithful to his trust, to put it 

 down until his journey was accomp- 

 lished. And this the Spotted Dog knew, 

 and poor Trilby, whose pedal extremi- 

 ties were not conducive to rapid trav- 

 eling, could only make guttural sounds 

 and try to bite his tormentor with a 

 mouth full of other things than teeth. 

 Directly the oil, or whatever it was, 

 was given into the charge of one of us 

 Trilby would go back to where he last 

 saw the Spotted One, intent, not on 

 vengeance, but proper chastisement. 

 And alas ! the Spotted Dog was safely 

 resting on his unvirtuous couch a mile 



or more away. When we found thii 



out one of us would make an excuse In 

 walk into the village with Trilby; be- 

 cause, as we assured ourselves, il was 

 unsafe to intrust him with the postage- 

 stamps we needed. 



Only once did Trilby leave us, and 

 that was under peculiar circumstances. 

 I was walking back with him from the 

 village when a singularly beautiful girl 

 passed on horseback accompanied by a 

 man of — to use the phraseology of a 

 former day — a sinister aspect. Trilby 

 gave a glad bark of welcome and raced 

 after them in the fading light. We had 

 no oil or oil-can until Trilby returned 

 two days later very footsore and with 

 only half the oil. For a week he seemed 

 depressed, and Billy immortalized the 

 episode in verse, and Lorry drew pic- 

 tures of a beauteous maid escaping on 

 a fiery mustang from the clutches of a 

 demon lover, while toiling in the rear 

 came Trilby and the oil-can. 



With the end of the summer came 

 many debates as to Trilby's lot in win- 

 ter. Billy was going to Florida, Lorry 

 was bound for the Islands, while the 

 Other Man and I were to share a tiny 

 apartment where Trilby would have no 

 air and no exercise. So we decided to 

 send Trilby as a boarder to the man 

 from whom we bought vegetables. He 

 was to have one dollar a week and we 

 paid him in advance until Christmas. I 

 was away from Manhattan a great deal 

 that fall, and it was not until Christ- 

 mas morning that the Other Man and 

 I went over to call on Trilby, bearing- 

 various trifles from a delicatessen store 

 we knew he would like. 



The cottage in which we hoped to 

 find him was empty, and its former 

 proprietor in prison. Vague and un- 

 sympathetic were the reports of Trilby's 

 probable destinies. 



One man guessed he had been shot 

 and another that the rigorous December 

 had starved him. Some slight interest 

 was awakened when we offered a re- 

 ward for any authentic information 

 concerning him, but their attitude was 

 one of profound pity that men with 



