er the stress of his agitation as he hauled
her in front of the notice which commands you to refrain from climbing
the barrier.

"Of course I can wead," she replied with dignity; "I'm weading the
little----"

"Well! read _that_!"

"But--but"--stammered Leonie, having read with difficulty--"but I knew
the tiger, Mr. Keeper!"

"_Oh_! yes! of course! You were tiger 'unting and brought him from the
Sunderbunds about four years ago; it wasn't the gentleman, of course not!"

"But weally," pleaded Leonie with the tears very near, "weally I've--I've
dweamed lots about him, and--and--and----"

"Take her away, Sir--she makes me see red she does. No thank you.
Sir--very much obliged, but it's part of my duty to see that people
_don't_ climb the barrier, and I kind of failed--p'raps the little girl
what came and----"

They were outside by this time and the centre of an interested admiring
crowd; it is only bleeding meat at three o'clock as a rule which can
rouse the inhabitants of the lion house from their prison apathy.

Taking the dirty little paw Cuxson, crumpling up a note, put it into the
dirty little palm and closed the fingers tightly over it. Whereupon
Gertrude Ellen blushed furiously, and went to her mother with her
clenched fist behind her back, where she kept it stiffly until tea-time,
when she held out the bit of paper without a word, to the tune of "Lawks
a mercy me!" from her mother, who immediately ordered more buns on the
strength of it.

"Lor' bless yer, lovey!" said Mrs. Higgins, whose bonnet was bobbing on
the nape of her neck, leaving the wisps of hair to straggle
unrestrainedly in the honest grey eyes, as she knelt on the ground and
tugged Leonie's short skirts into place. "Yer did give us a turn,
dearie; yer might 'av 'ad yer 'and nipped orf by that there brute. Come
'_ere_, Lil and 'Erb--I'll 'ave yer eaten by the camuls next!"

The bow-legged twins, with their spirit of adventure quashed, rolled back
to mother, and stood wide-eyed as she ran her work-worn hand through the
stranger's luxuriant curls.

"Give us a kiss, lovey, an' go an' get some tea!"

For the second time that day Leonie moved to obey the same command, but
this time there was no hesitation as she put her thin arms round the
woman's neck and kissed her sweetly once and again.

And the woman, who sensed something amiss in the quivering little body,
held her firmly, patting her gently with the same hand which dealt out
indis