Q-241124

Striped blinds, for it was a blazing autumn morning, covered most of the windows, and a voice sang to the piano an almost forgotten song of Jean Ingelow’s–
Methought that the stars were blinking bright,
And the old brig’s sails unfurled—
Down came the loud pedal, and the unrestrained cry swelled out across a bed of tritomas consuming in their own fires—
When I said I will sail to my love this night
On the other side of the world.

This is from “The Dog Hervey” in A Diversity of Creatures (1917)

Moira Sichliffe, unmarried, in her thirty-fourth year, shy, ungainly and to most people unattractive, directs on to a terrier puppy, also ungainly and unattractive, which she calls ‘Harvey’, an obsessive love which she would really like to give to a particular man.

This is generally agreed by the critics to be one of Kipling’s most difficult stories to understand – along with the dual spelling of the dog’s name…  (iantks@icloud.com)