Gone for the day, gone for good (or gone for bad), Jubal did not know.  Duke had been present at dinner the night before, had not shown up for breakfast.  Neither event was noteworthy in Harshaw's loosely coupled household and no one else appeared to have missed Duke.  Jubal himself would not ordinarily have noticed unless he had had occasion to yell for Duke.  But this morning Jubal had, of course, noticed... and he had refrained from shouting for Duke at least twice on occasions when he normally would have done so.