"SUSPENSE." 79
supreme watching and expectation in which she has been
painted. She had been shut up to keep her from running off
to the railway station-just as I have known another faithful
dog go regularly and take up his position at a particular hour,
in order to be present on the arrival of a coach by which his
master had been wont to return home. The dog was under
the impression that the man would make his appearance in
the old accustomed fashion, and, although he was doomed to
disappointment night after night, he kept up the bootless
practice for weeks.
 The attitude expressive of suspense became frequent,
almost habitual, with Flora. In the early days of Harry's
service, he happened to have tolerably frequent opportunities
of coming home, so that his dog grew familiar with arrivals
and departures. And Harry's father and mother, now cherish-
ing Flora as a relic of their absent son, were fain to allege
that she showed marvellous, certainly superhuman, if not
supernatural, discrimination in detecting the most distant
signs of her master's approach; and that they were often
made aware of Harry's unexpected nearness, before they could
otherwise have known it, simply by the actions of the dog.
 In addition, Flora had her susceptibilities keenly alive to
any trace of Harry, or any association with him, so that on
the sight of some article which had belonged to him, such as
his cap or his old overcoat, or even on her catching the distant
sound of the sportsmen's dropping shots on the first of Sep-
tember, Flora would fall into an expectant position, and sit
motionless and listening for hours. The last expression of
her remembrance unquestionably detracted from the correct-
ness of her premonitions of Harry's reappearance; but his