guy ropes, the pupil and assistant Quast, neatly attired in a close fitting bottle-green uniform with brass buttons.  Almost immediately Lola appeared, in a shimmering gold evening gown, and with a necklet of barbaric gold round her neck.  I had never seen her so magnificently, so commandingly beautiful.  I was conscious of a ripple of admiration running through the huge assembly—­and it was a queer sensation, half pride, half angry jealousy.  My immediate neighbors were emphatic in their praise.  Applause greeted her.  She smiled acknowledgments and, flicking the little toy whip which she carried in her hand, she began the act.  First of all, the cats jumped from their stands, right-turned like a military line, and walked in procession round the stage.  At a halt and a signal each pussy put its front paws on its front neighbour and the march began again.  Then Lola did something with voice and whip, and each cat dropped on its paws, and as if by magic there appeared a space between every animal.

At a further word the last cat jumped over the one in front and over the one in front of that and so on until, having cleared the first cat, it leaped on to its stand where it began to lick itself placidly.  Meanwhile, the penultimate cat had begun the same evolution, and then the ante-penultimate cat, until all the cats had cleared the front one and had taken their positions on their stands.  The last cat, left alone, looked round, yawned in the face of the audience, and, turning tail, regained its stand with the air of unutterable boredom.  The audience, delighted, applauded vehemently.  I raised my hands as I clapped them, trying vainly and foolishly to catch Lola’s eye.

At a tap of her whip a white angora and a sleek tabby jumped from the stands and took up their positions one at each end of a miniature tight-rope.  Lola stuck a tiny Japanese umbrella in the collar of each and sent them forth on their perilous journey.  When they met in the middle, they spat and caterwauled and argued spitefully.  The audience shrieked.  Then by a miracle the cats cleared each other and pursued their sedate and cautious ways to their respective ends of the rope.  The next act was a team of a dozen rats drawing a tiled chariot driven by a stolid coal-black cat with green, expressionless eyes, down an aisle formed by the other cats who sat in solemn contemplation on their tails.  There was no doubt of Lola’s success.  The tricks were as marvellous in themselves as their execution was flawless.  During the applause I noticed her eagerly scanning the sea of faces.  Her eyes seemed to be turned in my direction.  I waved my handkerchief, and instinct told me that at last she recognised the point of pink and the flutter of white as me.