THE SUPERB MOMENT
the door, Beetles met him, hailed him with leaps and crouchings as his deliverer, his master, his adored and worshipped god, returned at last; from where, was of no interest to Beetles. Carron caressed him, assured him that he was an excellent little dog, but not at all the person wanted, and went on in search. At this hour the women would probably be in the kitchen together, but the room was empty. A cloth was flung on a chair as it might have fallen from a busy hand. The sink was full of tins. "They will be back in a moment," Carron thought; but inspection showed the water to be cold, and the fire in the stove nearly out. In the dining-room dishes stood on the table as they had been left from breakfast, the shades were drawn high, a cold light filled the place, and flies sung in the panes. Impatient at not finding people where he expected them when he wanted them, he ran up-stairs. No answers to his knocks. Down-stairs again, and an inspiration seized him. It was possible that they were employed in some way about the greater house. He opened the door which led from the little hall into the large dining-room. Here he experienced the curious sensation of whoever enters suddenly a room in which they have been on only one occasion, with which they have only one association. Carron had not been here since his first morning in the house, when
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