Thereafter she had never doubted him; he had barked at all twelve of Mr. Heatherbloom's predecessorsthe dozen other answers to the advertisement; but here he was sedulous for fondlings from Horatio.

We have many such fondlings that are their wives' packhorses and slaves, (nam grave malum uxor superans virum suum, as the comical poet hath it, there's no greater misery to a man than to let his wife domineer) to carry her muff, dog, and fan, let her wear the breeches, lay out, spend, and do what she will, go and come whither, when she will, they give consent.

That bower by the loch, too, was favourable to the fondlings of a secret love; nor was it sometimes less to the prisoner a refuge from the eeriness which comes of ennuiif it is not the same thingunder the pressure of which strange feeling he would creep out at times when Annie could not be with him; nay, sometimes when the family had gone to bed.