"
"I would advise you, Baroness, not to make that remark at an
Edinburgh dinner-table." Glenormiston was smiling. "The pride of
Auld Reekie just now is Mr. Gourlay Stelle, who was lately
commanded to Balmoral Castle to paint the Queen's dogs."
"The very person! I have seen his beautiful canvas--'Burns and the
Field Mouse.' Is he not a younger brother of Sir John Stelle, the
sculptor of the statue and character figures in the Scott
monument?" Her eyes sparkled as she added: "You have so much talent
of the right, sorts here that it would be wicked not to employ it
in the good cause."
What "the good cause" was came out presently, in the church, where
she startled even Glenormiston and Mr. Traill by saying quietly to
the minister and the church officers of Greyfriars auld kirk: "When
Bobby dies I want him laid in the grave with his master."
Every member of both congregations knew Bobby and was proud of his
fame, but no official notice had ever been taken of the little
dog's presence in the churchyard. The elders and deacons were, in
truth, surprised that such distinguished attention should be
directed to him now, and they were embarrassed by it. It was not
easy for any body of men in the United Kingdom to refuse anything
to Lady Burdett-Coutts, because she could always count upon having
the sympathy of the public. But this, they declared, could not be
considered. To propose to bury a dog in the historic churchyard
would scandalize the city.
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