Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/154

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SHEILA AND OTHERS

one got a glimmer of inflections operative much higher up the scale. One was humbled by knowledge indirectly gleaned. His buoyancy, his trust, his spontaneous happiness—was it because he didn't know that his little spark of life lay between such great gulfs of darkness? Is knowledge then a deterrent and not to be wished for? One felt in the light of this small manufacturer of boundless happiness out of life's commonest furnishings, ashamed of one's own daily vintage of care and perplexities.

Some folk object to our canine retainers on the ground of their uselessness. I may have had some misgivings myself on this score before Keddo's day. Keddo was very useful. Besides holding Janet on the job, and irradiating the household with good cheer and jollity, he provided a much needed outlet for our suppressed faculty of command. We all require scope for this faculty which gets too little exercise after the children are grown up. Keddo provided it in our case. If didn't carry it so far as to hurt his feelings, he loved you all the more for ordering him about. The first time I heard the Master of the house sternly bidding him to lie down, sir, I knew his posi-