Page:Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Ingram, 5th ed.).djvu/121

Rh and thrice—only to keep his eye on them, that they should not vanish from the room by any means, as it is his intention to have them at last. My father is quite vexed with me sometimes, and given to declare that I have instructed Flush in the art of giving himself airs, and, otherwise, that no dog in the world could be, of his own accord and instinct, so like a woman. But I never did so instruct him. The ’airs' came as the wind blows. Pie surprises me just as he surprises other people—and more, because I see more of him. His sensibility on the matter of vanity strikes me most amusingly. To be dressed up in necklaces and a turban is an excessive pleasure to him; and to have the glory of eating everything that he sees me eat is to be glorious indeed. Because I offered him cream cheese on a bit of toast and forgot the salt, he refused at once. It was Bedreddin and the unsalted cheese-cake over again. And this although he hates salt, and is conscious of his hatred of salt; but his honour was in the salt, according to his view of the question, and he insisted upon its being properly administered. Now, tell me if Flush's notion of honour and the modern world's are not much on a par. In fact, he thought I intended by my omission to place him below the salt.

"My nearest approach to starving Flush (to come to an end of the subject) is to give general instructions to the servant who helps him to his dinner 'not to press him to eat.' I know he ought not to be fat—I know it too well—and his father being, according to Miss Mitford's account, square at this moment, there is an