She never thought of it in that way at all, any more than it ever occurred to her that people once spoke the Hebrew she learned to read and translate.

"Bobby" was often present at these readings, but he kept his thoughts to himself, sitting on his hind legs with his delightfully ugly nose tilted up inquiringly at Esther.

For the best of all this new friendship was that Bobby was not jealous.

He was only a sorry dun-colored mongrel to outsiders, but Esther learned to see him almost through Dutch Debby's eyes.

And she could run up the stairs freely, knowing that if she trod on his tail now, he would take it as a mark of _camaraderie_.
"I used to pay a penny a week for the _London Journal_," said Debby early in their acquaintanceship, "till one day I discovered I had a dreadful bad memory." "And what was the good of that ?" said Esther.
"Why, it was worth shillings and shillings to me.