beside it; simply crushed, as were those which were killed by the bear
at the Hippodrome. He mentioned the matter during one of the sittings
for the portrait, and the lady, being curious to see the animal, came to
his studio--and then the trouble commenced. She developed a most
unaccountable attachment for Mephisto, and he was as gentle as a lamb
with her. They would sit facing each other by the hour, and the artist
swore they talked to each other and understood each other perfectly. The
animal never attempted to harm her, but the artist became alarmed for
fear there should be an accident, and believing that there was something
uncanny about the brute, he decided to get rid of it and sold it to me.

"Well, I watched her with the bear on shipboard and since we landed, and
I can't yet understand her control over it, for it does not control her
in any way. There seems to be a sympathy between them which makes them
absolutely understand each other, and through it she understands the
other caged beasts. The act which I had framed for her when I found that
she was absolutely in earnest was a dance to be given in the midst of a
group of adult lions. The lady is absolutely fearless and approved the
plan, but stipulated that she should select the lions.

"'I have means of knowing which ones will behave and which are such
idiots that they can't be controlled if anything goes wrong,' she
answered when I suggested that I was a better judge of the dispositions
of the lions. 'I don't intend to have my beauty spoiled,' she said, 'and
I only want beasts which are intelligent. No one can trust a fool.'
Perhaps I have fallen under her influence, which according to her
standard should indicate intelligence, for I have given way at every
point and her judgment has proved correct, for in rehearsing the act she
has perfect control over the animals, three of which I considered the
most vicious in the menagerie. I let her take them in fear and
trembling.

"For the past three days she has been anxious and uneasy about the bear
and has insisted that it was rapidly going blind. She says that the bear
is her teacher about things in the animal world, and that she can tell
what it is thinking about. Its eyes look perfectly sound, and it is only
for two days that we have noticed anything wrong with it. Mephisto knew
its way about its old cage so well that it gave no evidence of
blindness, and a bear is naturally clumsy in its movements, but when we