strange calls, to his
gentleness and fearlessness, with an alert understanding and confidence
beautiful to see. His favourites were certain creatures of the deer
species, which crowded to their fences to sniff his clothes, and to lick
his hands, which he abandoned to their caresses with manifest
satisfaction. His example encouraged the queenly Nora and her sprightly
mother to feed the beautiful creatures with bread and buns, and to feel
the suffusion of pleasure derived from the contact of their soft lips
with the palm of the hand. After that they were scarcely astonished
when, without bravado, but clearly with simple confidence and enjoyment,
Julius put his hand within the bars of the lion's cage and scratched the
ears of a lioness, murmuring the while in a strange tongue such fond
sounds as only those use who are on the best terms with animals. The
great brute rose to his touch, closing its eyes, and bearing up its head
like a cat.

Then came an incident that deeply impressed the Lefevres. Julius went to
a cage in which, he said, there was a recent arrival--a leopard from the
"Land of the Setting Sun," the romantic land of the Moors. The creature
crouched sulking in the back of the cage. Julius tapped on the bars, and
entreated her in the language of her native land, "Ya, dudu! ya,
lellatsi!" She bounded to him with a "_wir-r-r_" of delight, leaned and
rubbed herself against the bars, and gave herself up to be stroked and
fondled. When he left her, she cried after him piteously, and wistfully
watched him out of sight.

"Do you know the beautiful creature?" asked Lady Lefevre.

"Yes," answered Julius quietly; "I brought her over some months ago."

Lefevre had explained to his mother that Julius had always been on
friendly or fond terms with animals, but never till now had he seen the
remarkable understanding he clearly maintained with them.

"Look!" said Lady Lefevre to her son as they turned to leave the
Gardens. "He seems to have fascinated Nora as much as the beasts."

Nora stood a little aloof, regarding Julius in an ecstasy of admiration.
When she found her mother was looking at her, her eyes sank, and as it
were a veil of blushes fell over her. Mother and son walked on first,
and Julius followed with Nora.

"He is a most charming and extraordinary man," said the mother.

"He is," said the son, "and amazingly intelligent."

"He seems to know everything, and to have been everywhere,--to have been
a kind