II. MONT VELAN 501

27. Reaching Paris, he considered it incumbent upon him to appear unconscious of the existence of that city, or of the Tuileries gardens and Rue Rivoli, since they were not St. Mark’s Place;-but, half asleep one evening, on a sofa in the entresol at Meurice’s, and hearing a bark in the street which sounded Venetian,-sprang through the window in expectation of finding himself on the usual ledge-and fell fifteen feet* to the pavement. As I ran down, I met him rushing up the hotel stairs, (he had gathered himself from the stones in an instant), bleeding and giddy; he staggered round and round two or three times, and fell helpless on the floor. I don’t know if young ladies’ dogs faint, really, when they are hurt. He, Wisie, did not faint, nor even moan, but he could not stir, except in cramped starts and shivers. I sent for what veterinary help was within reach, and heard that the dog might recover, if he could be kept quiet for a day or two in a dog-hospital. But my omnibus was at the door-for the London train. In the very turn and niche of time I heard that Macdonald of St. Martin’s¹ was in the hotel, and would take charge of Wisie for the time necessary. The poor little speechless, luckless, wistfully gazing doggie was tenderly put in a pretty basket, (going to be taken where? thinks the beating heart,) looks at his master to read what he can in the sad face-can make out nothing; is hurried out of the inexorable door, downstairs; finds himself more nearly dead next day, and among strangers. (Two miles away from Meurice’s, along the Boulevard, it was.)

He takes and keeps counsel with himself on that matter. Drinks and eats what he is given, gratefully; swallows his medicine obediently; stretches his limbs from time to time. There was only a wicket gate, he saw, between the Boulevard and him. Silently, in the early dawn of the fourth or fifth

* Thirteen feet nine, I find, on exact measurement-coming back to Meurice’s to make sure. It is the height of the capitals of the piers in the Rue Rivoli.

¹ [See ii. § 194 (above, p. 423).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]