"Yes, but why?" queried Cleek. "I have heard of your father's second marriage, mademoiselle, and of this Signor Antonio Martinelli, to whom you allude. Mr. Narkom has told me. But why should you connect these two persons with this inexplicable thing? Does your father do so, too?" "Oh, no! Oh, no!" she answered excitedly. "He does not even know that we suspect, Jim and I. He loves her, monsieur. It would kill him to doubt her." "Then why should you?" "Because I cannot help it, monsieur. God knows, I would if I could, for I care for her dearly--I am grateful to her for making my father happy. My brothers, too, cared for her. We believed she loved him; we believed it was because of that she married him. And yet--and yet--Ah, monsieur, how can I fail to feel as I do when this change in the lion came with that man's coming? And she--ah, monsieur, she is always with him. Why does she curry favour of him and his rich friend?" "He has a rich friend, then?" "Yes, monsieur. The company was in difficulties; Monsieur van Zant, the proprietor, could not make it pay, and it was upon the point of disbanding. But, suddenly, this indifferent performer, this rider who is, after all, but a poor amateur and not fit to appear with a company of trained artists, suddenly this Signor Martinelli comes to Monsieur van Zant to say that, if he will engage him, he has a rich friend--one Señor Sperati, a Brazilian coffee planter--who will 'back' the show with his money and buy a partnership in it. Of course, M. van Zant accepted; and since then this Señor Sperati has travelled everywhere with us, has had the entrée like one of us, and his friend, the bad rider, has fairly bewitched my stepmother, for she is ever with him, ever with them both, and--and--Ah, mon Dieu! the lion smiles, and my people die! Why does it 'smile' for no others? Why is it only they--my father, my brother--they alone?" "Is that a fact?" said Cleek, turning to young Scarmelli. "You say that all connected with the circus have so little fear of the beast that even attendants sometimes do this foolhardy trick. Does the lion never 'smile' for any of those?" "Never, Mr. Cleek--never under any circumstances. Nor does it always smile for the chevalier and his son. That is the mystery of it. One never knows when it is going to happen--one never knows why it does happen. But if you could see that uncanny smile--" "I should like to," interposed Cleek. "That is, if it might happen without any tragical result. Hum-m-m! Nobody but the chevalier and the chevalier's son! And when does it happen in their case--during the course of the show, or when there is nobody about but those connected with it?" "Oh, always during the course of the entertainment, sir. Indeed, it has never happened at any other time--never at all."