44 "HIGH LIFE."
the kennel staff on the puppy, the finest of the litter, the
progeny of a valuable and favourite dog. Neither were the
kennel men and boys the only or the principal persons who
waited on the levees of Carlo. My lord and my lady visited
him almost daily; the most cherished visitors at the castle
were taken to inspect his points, and admire his promise;
indeed it was regarded as a mark of favour, on the part of the earl
and the countess, when some comparatively humble visitor-
parson, lawyer, or doctor, with his wife or daughters-was
invited to go to the kennel and have a look at the special
puppy. The kennel was the first place the young lord ran to
when he was home from Eton.
 Carlo was led through all the trying stages of puppyhood
with the most tender anxiety for his welfare. His weaning
and teething were carefully seen to. I am almost sure that
he was inoculated for distemper, either in the ear or under a
front leg, at a spot which could not be reached by tooth or
claw; and that the operation was performed by a distinguished
veterinary surgeon, who came from the next large town for
the purpose.
 If I am right, by this means the dog was enabled to escape
altogether the common scourge of the young of the dog race.
And I believe the most distant suspicion of mange, imported by
some extraordinary means to Carlo, would have been enough
to have driven the head kennel-man into a fit, would have
covered with gloom the countenance of the young lord, and
would even have brought a cloud over the brow of his father
the earl, who was a famous statesman, and was understood to
have the destinies of nations at his beck.
 That was a great day to more than the dog-on which he