tle Anastasius Papadopoulos! She showed me his letters, written
in a great round, flourishing, sanguine hand. He seemed to be happy
enough at the Maison de Sante. He had formed, he said, a school for the
cats of the establishment, for which the authorities were very grateful,
and he heralded the completion of his gigantic combinations with regard
to the discovery of the assassin of the horse Sultan. Lola and I never
spoke of him without pain; for in spite of his crazy and bombastic
oddities, he had qualities that were lovable.

"And now," said Lola, "I must tell him that Hephaestus has been killed
and the rest are again idling under the care of the faithful Quast. It
seemed a pity to kill the poor beast."

"I wish to Heaven," said I, "that he had been strangled at birth."

"You never liked him." She smiled wanly. "But he is scarcely to be
blamed. I grew unaccountably nervous and lost control. All savage
animals are like that." And, seeing that I was about to protest
vehemently, she smiled again. "Remember, I'm a lion-tamer's daughter,
and brought up from childhood to regard these things as part of the
show. There must always come a second's failure of concentration. Lots
of tamers meet their deaths sooner or later for the same reason--just a
sudden loss of magnetism. The beast gets frightened and springs."

Exactly what Quast had told me. Exactly what I myself had divined at
the sickening moment. I bowed my head and laid the back of her cool hand
against it, and groaned out my remorse. If I had not been there! If
I had not distracted her attention! She would not listen to my
self-reproach. It had nothing to do with me. She had simply missed her
grip and lost her head. She forbade me to mention the subject again. The
misery of thinking that I held myself to blame was unbearable. I said no
more, realising the acute distress of her generous soul, but in my heart
I made a deep vow of reparation.

It was, however, with no such chivalrous feelings, but out of the simple
longing to fulfil my life that I asked her definitely, for the first
time, to marry me as soon as she could get about the world again. I put
before her with what delicacy I could that if she had foolish ideas of
my being above her in station, she was above me in worldly fortune, and
thus we both had to make some sacrifices to our pride. I said that my
work was found--that our lives could be regulated as she wished.

She listened, without saying a word, un