servants complained that Robert ruled the house, and I believe what they
said was true, for my sister and I idolized him, giving him the very
best of everything and never having the heart to refuse him anything he
wanted. You will probably scarcely credit it, but I have sat up all
night nursing him when he had a cold and was otherwise indisposed. Can
you therefore imagine my feelings when my darling was absent one day
from dinner? Such a thing had never happened before, for, fond of
morning 'constitutionals' as poor Robert was, he was always the soul of
punctuality at meal times.

"Neither my sister nor I would hear of eating anything. Whilst he was
missing, not a morsel did we touch, but slipping on our hats, and
bidding the servants do the same, we scoured the neighbourhood instead.
The afternoon passed without any sign of Robert, and when bedtime came
(he always slept in our room) and still no signs of our pet, I thought
we should both have gone mad. Of course, we advertised, selecting the
most popular and, accordingly, the most likely papers, and we resorted
to other mediums, too, but, alas! it was hopeless. Our darling little
Robert was irrevocably, irredeemably lost. For days we were utterly
inconsolable, doing nothing but mope morning, noon, and night. I cannot
tell you how forlorn we felt, nor how long we should have remained in
that state but for an incident which, although revealing the terrible
manner of his death, gave us every reason to feel sure we were not
parted from him for all time, but would meet again in the great
hereafter. It happened in this wise: I was walking along W---- Street
one evening when, to my intense joy and surprise, I suddenly saw my
darling standing on the pavement a few feet ahead of me, regarding me
intently from out of his pathetic brown eyes. A sensation of extreme
coldness now stole over me, and I noticed with something akin to a shock
that, in spite of the hot, dry weather, Robert looked as if he had been