not leave these women alone? Did they think none of them virtuous? He
would stake his life that Andree--he would call her that--was as straight
as the sun.

"What do you think of her, Jacques?" he said suddenly.

"It is grand. Mon Dieu, she is wonderful--and a face all fire!"

Presently she came out of the cage, followed by two great lions. She
walked round the ring, a hand on the head of each: one growling, the
other purring against her, with a ponderous kind of affection. She
talked to them as they went, giving occasionally a deep purring sound
like their own. Her talk never ceased. She looked at the audience, but
only as in a dream. Her mind was all with the animals. There was
something splendid in it: she, herself, was a noble animal; and she
seemed entirely in place where she was. The lions were fond of her, and
she of them; but the first part of her performance had shown that they
could be capricious. A lion's love is but a lion's love after all--and
hers likewise, no doubt! The three seemed as one in their beauty, the
woman superbly superior. Meyerbeer, in a far corner, was still on the
trail of his sensation. He thought that he might get an article out of
it--with the help of Count Ploare and Zoug-Zoug. Who was Zoug-Zoug?
He exulted in her picturesqueness, and he determined to lie in wait. He
thought it a pity that Comte Ploare was not an Englishman or an American;
but it couldn't be helped. Yes, she was, as he said to himself, "a
stunner." Meanwhile he watched Gaston, noted his intense interest.

Presently the girl stopped beside the cage. A chariot was brought out,
and the two lions were harnessed to it. Then she called out another
larger lion, which came unwillingly at first. She spoke sharply, and