d evidently
thought I had been hoaxed.

In a small case by itself was a beautiful jewelled cross, which
attracted D'Arcy's attention very much.

'This is not much in your line,' he said to Jamrach.'This is
European.'

'It came to me from Morocco,' said Jamrach, 'and it was no doubt
taken by a Morocco pirate from some Venetian captive.'

'It is a diamond and ruby cross,' said D'Arcy, 'but mixed with the
rubies there are beryls. I am at this moment describing a beryl in
some verses. The setting of the stones is surely quite peculiar.'

'Yes,' said Jamrach. 'It is the curiosity of the setting more than
the value of the gems which caused it to be sent to me. I have
offered it to the London jewellers, but they will only give me the
market-price of the stones and the gold.'

While he was talking I pulled out of my breast pocket the cross,
which had remained there since I received it from my mother the
evening before.

'They are very much alike,' said Jamrach; 'but the setting of these
stones is more extraordinary than in mine. And of course they are
more than fifty times as valuable.'

D'Arcy turned round to see what we were talking about, when he saw
the cross in my hand, and an expression of something like awe came
over his face.

'The Moonlight Cross of the Gnostics!' he exclaimed. 'You carry this
about in your breast pocket? Put it away, put it away! The thing
seems to be alive.'

In a second, however, and before I could answer him, the expression
passed from his face, and he took the cross from my hands and
examined it.

'This is the most beautiful piece of jewel work I ever saw in my
life. I have heard of such things. The Gnostic art of arranging
jewels so that they will catch the moon-rays and answer them as
though the light were that of the sun, is quite lost.'

We then went and examined Jamrach's menagerie. I found that one
source of the interest D'Arcy took in animals was that he was a
believer in Baptista Porta's whimsical theory that every human
creature resembles one of the lower animals, and he found a perennial
amusement in seeing in the faces of animals caricatures of his
friends.

With a fund of humour that was exhaustless, he went from cage to
cage, giving to each animal the name of some member of the Royal
Academy, or of one of his own intimate friends.

On leaving Jamrach's he said to me, 'Suppose we make a day of it and
go to the Zoo?'

I agreed, and we took a hansom as soon as we c