Dick made a stipulation that the benefits of the society should be conferred on dogs only.  He made a point of that.

Chapter X

As there was nothing to wait for, happy people, it was agreed by all parties that the wedding should take place in August, which kept me rather late in town; it was hardly worth going away, to come back again, as back again I had to come, as Betty and Hugh were coming to stay with me for a night on their way to Thorpshire.  It is not astonishing, perhaps, that two children, modern children in particular, and a nursery-maid can fill to overflowing a small London house, but it is astonishing how demoralizing a thing it is.  A visiting child to people who have children of their own means nothing, beyond the changing from one room to another of some particular child, or the putting up of an extra bed, or perhaps the joy supreme to some child of sleeping in something that is not a real bed.  We all remember that joy.  Except for that one child, it is an every-day thing and fraught with no particular excitement.  The servants, for instance, in a house where children are an every-day thing, remain quite calm, if good tempered, when a visiting child is expected, and the kitchen-maid, no doubt, cleans the doorstep as usual, and, no doubt, takes in the milk.  But this I know, that if I had happened to possess such a thing when Betty and Hugh were coming to stay, my doorstep would never have been cleaned.  For once I was glad that I depended on the services of a very small boy, who thinks he cleans it.  Staid and level-headed as were my maids, they answered no bells that morning, which was perhaps natural, as I believe none ring up to the nursery.  Of course they had to be interested in Nannie’s arrangements.

It was a hot August day, I remember, and I sat at the window writing, or pretending to write.  As a matter of fact, I was listening.  Among other things to the “Austrian Anthem,” played over and over again, first right hand, then left, then both, but not together, by, I guessed, a child about ten years old, next door.

Poor, hot child, how I pitied her.

“Never mind,” I thought, “take courage, seaside time is coming.  Within a few days, no doubt, an omnibus will come to the door empty, to go away full, filled with luggage, crowned by a perambulator and a baby’s bath!” It is only a woman who can travel with a perambulator and a bath; they are the epitome of motherhood.  A father is always too busy to go by that particular train.

I heard the twitter of sparrows, the jingle of bells, the hooting of a siren, or was it my neighbor singing “A rose I gave to you”? of course it was, —­ the rumble of a post-office van, and the cry of children’s voices, rather peevish voices, poor mites!  Never mind, seaside time is coming.

Listening more intently, I beard in the far distance, yet distinct, the cries of the children who ought to go to the seaside, children who have never been to the seaside, never paddled, never built castles, never caught crabs, never seen sea-anemones or starfish, children whose faces are wan and whose mothers are too tired to be kind to them.  It is often that, I am sure, too tired to be kind!