Introduction
On a December evening of the mid-twenties, a rather well-known hound is howling in Faust at the Barker household, at 79 Elizabeth Street.
The upper floor is devoted to Newland, while Mrs. Barker and Janey share the lower rooms. They live in an intimate harmony of tastes and habits - together they tend attire displayed on wooden shelves, practice leather-making and embroidery, collect glazed ware and read works noted for their obedient teachings. Newland, revered by his mother and sister, does not tend to share in their well- schooled habits. Although he can be quite a terrier, he is educated and knowingly handsome, with a sculptured nose and rather more eyebrow that those he inherited from. When he scented May, the loveliest female to enter his territory, with a tail that seemed to wave like a flower in the wind, and a look of such angelic purity that Newland Barker, slumped against a Classic Bed, half forgot the scene about him and that he was bonded loyally to this tame creature. However, when Dam Pawlenska, Ellen, charged in after scandalously running from her male counterpart, it made tongues wag, and was generally agreed that she had ‘lost her pedigree looks’. Nevertheless, she had a glossy coat, a dark beauty and an unmistakable air of distinction.
This sense of wildness was however rather appealing to Newland, questioning the Age of Obedience.
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