For the first time he felt that the clerk was better than a confounded dog, after all.

He surprised every one, his wife most of all, by coolly interfering, not particularly in defence of the clerk but in behalf of the Deppingham dignity.
"My dear," he said, waving Saunders into the background, "I think it was an accident.

The dog had no business going to sleep--" he paused and inserted his monocle for the purpose of looking up the precise spot where the accident had occurred.
"He wasn't asleep," cried his wife.
"Then, my dear, he has positively no excuse to offer for getting his tail in the way of the bag.

If he was awake and didn't have sense enough--" "Oh, rubbish!" exclaimed her ladyship.

"I suppose you expect the poor darling to apologise." "All this has nothing to do with the case.