CHAPTER II
TOUCHES UPON A MATTER OF GRAVE PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Of what crime, do you suppose, has S. of P. been
guilty? It was merely that in a public print he had
ventured to ask why the payment of the nominal sum
of seven and sixpence per annum conferred upon the
dogs of London certain privileges in respect of its pavements
which society at large, for some little time past,
has ceased to claim.
The resources of civilization were ranged already against Shelmerdine of Potterhanworth. Nice-minded women in point lace refused to meet the self-constituted champion of public amenity; the black-velveted mistresses of the Flossies and the Fidos thought the state of his mind must be unpleasant; he was an object of contumely where all that was fair and of good report held sway in the life of the metropolis.
It was a pretty quarrel, and both sides were sustaining it with spirit. The Pro-Darlings, with Verax and a Lover of Animals at their head, had rejoined with mannerly vituperation to the polished sarcasm of the Anti-Darlings. What is your remedy? had inquired the
