ose he had never been waited on before, he smiled
with such a grateful look, almost of surprise.

Have I not said that ours was a black oak-panelled hall, with a wide
fireplace, a gallery and oriel window, matted, and so fitted up as to
be a pleasant resort for summer days. Our lessons took place there,
because I had found that my old schoolroom, out of sight and sound of
everything, was such an intolerable prison to my little wild Bush girl,
that she really could not learn there, since her very limited attention
could only be secured, under the certainty that Harold did not leave
the house without her.

He bade her let him hear how well she could read, but he was very soon
fast asleep, and I was persuading her that the multiplication table
could not disturb his slumbers, when, at the sound of horses' feet, she
darted from my side, like an arrow from a bow, to the open front door,
and there waved her hand in command, calling to the rider in a hushed
voice, "He is asleep."

I followed, expecting to see Eustace; but the rider was instead Dermot
Tracy, who in unfeigned alarm asked if he were seriously ill; and when
I laughed and explained, he gave his horse, to the groom, and came
quietly enough, to satisfy Dora, into the hall with us.

There he stood transfixed, gazing at the great sleeping figure with a
passion of enthusiasm in his dark-grey eyes. "Glorious!" he said.
"Splendid fellow! Worthy of the deed, Lucy! It was the most plucky
thing I ever saw!"

"You distinguished yourself too," I said.

"I? Why, I had a rifle. I galloped down to Grice's for mine at the
first, when I saw the menagerie people were cowed. What's that to
going at him alone, and mastering him too, as he had done before those
idiots thought proper to yell?"

Being talked about, of course, awoke Harold; his eyes opened, and he
answered for himself, greeting Dermot heartily. Only then did we
understand the full history of what had happened. The lion-tamer,
whose part it was to exhibit the liberty he could take with the
animals, was ill, and his assistant, after much bravado as to his equal
power, had felt his courage quail, and tried to renew it with drink.
Thus he was in no state to perceive that he had only shot-to the bolt
of the door of the cage; and his behaviour had so irritated the beast
that, after so dealing with him that he lay in a most dangerous state,
he had dashed out at the door in rage and terror, and, after seizing
the