He put his hand on her head, and the bitch leaned her head sideways against him. He slowly, softly pulled the long silky ear.

“There!” he said. “There! Go an’ eat thy supper! Go!”

He tilted his chair towards the pot on the mat, and the dog meekly went, and fell to eating.

“Do you like dogs?” Connie asked him.

“No, not really. They’re too tame and clinging.”

He had taken off his leggings and was unlacing his heavy boots. Connie had turned from the fire. How bare the little room was! Yet over his head on the wall hung a hideous enlarged photograph of a young married couple, apparently him and a boldfaced young woman, no doubt his wife.

“Is that you?” Connie asked him.

He twisted and looked at the enlargement above his head.