The other application of his doctrine of resisting evil was even more trying to her feelings and the preacher was instant certainly out of season.

Not the least important personage in the Wimpole Street house was Miss Barrett's devoted companion Flush.

Loyal and loving to his mistress Flushie always was; yet to his lot some canine errors fell; he eyed a visitor's umbrella with suspicion; he resented perhaps the presence of a rival; he did not behave nicely to a poet who had not written verses in his honour; for which he was duly rebuked by his mistress--the punishment was not capital--and was propitiated with bags of cakes by the intruder.

When the day for their flight drew near Miss Barrett proposed somewhat timidly that her maid Wilson should accompany her to Italy, but she was gratefully confident that Flush could not be left behind.

Just at this anxious moment a dreadful thing befell; a gang of dog-stealers, presided over by the arch-fiend Taylor, bore Flushie away into the horror of some obscure and vulgar London alley.