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There was a mirror on the wall. As I lifted my eyes to it I saw the dog Harvey reflected near the shadow by the closed door. He had reared himself fulllength on his hind legs, his head a little one side to clear a sofa between us, and he was at me. The face, with its knitted brows and drawn lips, was the face of a dog, but the look, for the fraction of time that I caught it, was human—wholly and horribly human. |
This is from “The Dog Hervey” collected in A Diversity of Creatures, one of Kipling’s strangest stories, which some critics see as a tale of witchcraft. Moira, Miss Sichcliffe, an ungainly camel-like woman, seems to have strange powers. She adopts a little squinting dog, with a strangely human stare. She calls him Hervey and he becomes her messenger, looked after by the story-teller,for a time, and projected into the mind of a man who she has craved as a lover, ever since he had stood up for her years before. An alcoholic, he has visions of the squinting dog, meets the story-teller on a journey,associates him with Hervey and is desperate for his friendship. He accompanies him back to England, and to Moira. The mysterious little dog has done his work, and reverts to normal dogdom. |
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