ate the sublime beauty of the desert; now that he
had a living thing to think about, alternations of fear and quiet, and
plenty to eat, his mind became filled with contrast and his life began
to be diversified.

Solitude revealed to him all her secrets, and enveloped him in her
delights. He discovered in the rising and setting of the sun sights
unknown to the world. He knew what it was to tremble when he heard over
his head the hiss of a bird's wing, so rarely did they pass, or when
he saw the clouds, changing and many colored travelers, melt one into
another. He studied in the night time the effect of the moon upon the
ocean of sand, where the simoom made waves swift of movement and rapid
in their change. He lived the life of the Eastern day, marveling at its
wonderful pomp; then, after having reveled in the sight of a hurricane
over the plain where the whirling sands made red, dry mists and
death-bearing clouds, he would welcome the night with joy, for then fell
the healthful freshness of the stars, and he listened to imaginary
music in the skies. Then solitude taught him to unroll the treasures
of dreams. He passed whole hours in remembering mere nothings, and
comparing his present life with his past.

At last he grew passionately fond of the panther; for some sort of
affection was a necessity.

Whether it was that his will powerfully projected had modified the
character of his companion, or whether, because she found abundant food
in her predatory excursions in the desert, she respected the man's life,
he began to fear for it no longer, seeing her so well tamed.

He devoted the greater part of his time to sleep, but he was obliged to
watch like a spider in its web that the moment of his deliverance might
not escape him, if anyone should pass the line marked by the horizon. He
had sacrificed his shirt to make a flag with, which he hung at the top
of a palm tree, whose foliage he had torn off. Taught by necessity, he
found the means of keeping it spread out, by fastening it with little
sticks; for the wind might not be blowing at the moment when the passing
traveler was looking through the desert.

It was during the long hours, when he had abandoned hope, that he amused
himself with the panther. He had come to learn the different inflections
of her voice, the expressions of her eyes; he had studied the capricious
patterns of all the rosettes which marked the gold of her robe. Mignonne
was not even angry when he t