"We certainly don't want anyone here of the kind
you have just described. From something Godfrey said to me it's clear
that Mrs. Crofton's horror of dogs is just a pose she thinks makes her
interesting. Why, her husband bred terriers; Flick actually came from
there! And Godfrey says that she herself had a little dog called by the
absurd name of 'Boo-boo' to which she was devoted."
"'Boo-boo' was the exception that proves the rule," answered Jack hotly.
"As for Colonel Crofton, it was beastly of him to breed terriers, knowing
how his wife felt about dogs! She told me herself she would never have
married him if she had known there was any likelihood of that coming to
pass. She feels about dogs as some people feel about cats."
"I never heard such nonsense!"
"Nonsense?" he repeated in an enraged tone. "It isn't nonsense! The best
proof that that horror of dogs is instinctive with her is the effect that
she herself has on every dog she comes across. That was shown the evening
she was here."
"Really, Jack, that's utterly absurd! Flick was not thinking of her at
all. Something in the garden had frightened him. Your father feels sure
that it was a snake which he himself killed the next morning.
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