His wife's sullenness and bad temper continued that day, for she cowered
away from him and hid under the sofa, nor could he persuade her to come
out from there. Even when it was her dinner time she stayed, refusing
resolutely to be tempted out with food, and lying so quiet that he heard
nothing from her for hours. At night he carried her up to the bedroom,
but she was still sullen and refused to eat a morsel, though she drank a
little water during the night, when she fancied he was asleep.

The next morning was the same, and by now Mr. Tebrick had been through
all the agonies of wounded self-esteem, disillusionment and despair that
a man can suffer. But though his emotions rose up in his heart and
nearly stifled him he showed no sign of them to her, neither did he
abate one jot his tenderness and consideration for his vixen. At
breakfast he tempted her with a freshly killed young pullet. It hurt him
to make this advance to her, for hitherto he had kept her strictly on
cooked meats, but the pain of seeing her refuse it was harder still for
him to bear. Added to this was now an anxiety lest she should starve
herself to death rather than stay with him any longer.

All that morning he kept her close, but in the afternoon let her loose
again in the garden after he had lopped the pear tree so that she could
not repeat her performance of climbing.

But seeing how disgustedly she looked while he was by, never offering to
run or to play as she was used, but only standing stock still with her
tail between her legs, her ears flattened, and the hair bristling on her
shoulders, seeing this he left her to herself out of mere humanity.

When he came out after half-an-hour he found that she was gone, but
there was a fair sized hole by the wall, and she just buried all but her