He fell to them with only a perfunctory
acknowledgment of my agency in procuring them.
"Why, I thought you hated him!" suddenly said the voice of his owner.
She had tiptoed to my side.
"I do," I said quite savagely, "but the unspeakable beast can't be
left to starve, can he?"
I felt her eyes upon me, but would not turn. Suddenly she put her hand
upon my shoulder, patting it rather curiously, as she might have
soothed her child. When I did turn she was back at her task. She was
humming again, nor did she glance my way. Quite certainly she was no
longer conscious that I stood about. She had quite forgotten me. I
could tell as much from her manner. "Such," I reflected, with an
unaccustomed cynicism, "is the light inconsequence of women and dogs."
Yet I still experienced a curiously thrilling determination to protect
her from her own good nature in the matter of her associates.
At a later and cooler moment of the day I reflected upon her defence
of the Klondike woman. A "prince in his palace" not too good for her!
No doubt she had meant me to take these remarkable words quite
seriously. It was amazing, I thought, with what seriousness the lower
classes of the country took their dogma of equality, and with what
naive confidence they relied upon us to accept it.
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