d stood looking at him
with a sort of awe that rounded her eyes and parted her lips, while the
man leaned heavily upon the back of a convenient chair and looked and
acted as one utterly overcome.

"Cleek!" he repeated, after a moment's despairful silence. "You, sir,
are that great man? This is a misfortune indeed."

"A misfortune, my friend? Why a 'misfortune,' pray? Do you think the
riddle you have brought is beyond my powers?"

"Oh, no; not that--never that!" he made reply. "If there is any one man
in the world who could get at the bottom of it, could solve the mystery
of the lion's change, the lion's smile, you are that man, sir, you. That
is the misfortune: that you could do it, and yet I cannot expect it,
cannot avail myself of this great opportunity. Look! I am doing it all
on my own initiative, sir, for the sake of Zelie and that dear, lovable
old chap, her father. I have saved fifty-eight pounds, Mr. Cleek. I had
hoped that that might tempt a clever detective to take up the case; but
what is such a sum to such a man as you?"

"If that is all that stands in the way, don't let it worry you, my good
fellow," said Cleek, with a smile. "Put your fifty-eight pounds in your
pocket against your wedding-day and good luck to you. I'll take the case
for nothing. Now then, what is it? What the dickens did you mean just
now when you spoke about 'the lion's change' and 'the lion's smile'?
What lion--Nero? Here, sit down and tell me all about it."

"There is little enough to tell, Heavens knows," said young Scarmelli,
with a sigh, accepting the invitation after he had gratefully wrung
Cleek's hand, and his fiancee, with a burst of happy tears, had caught
it up as it slipped from his and had covered it with thankful kisses.
"That, Mr. Cleek, is where the greatest difficulty lies, there is so
little to explain that has any bearing upon the matter at all. It is
only that the lion, Nero, that is, the chevalier's special pride and
special pet, seems to have undergone some great and inexplicable change,
as though he is at times under some evil spell, which lasts but a moment
and yet makes that moment a tragical one. It began, no one knows why nor
how, two weeks ago, when, without hint or warning, he killed the person
he loved best in all the world, the chevalier's eldest son. Doubtless
you have heard of that?"

"Yes," said Cleek. "But what you are now telling me sheds a new light
upon the matter. Am I to understand, then, that