by F. Anstey
merry-go-rounds, which produced adiscordant and deafening din until a certain hour of the evening, whenthe noises subsided, and Wooker and Sawkins' World-renowned Circusgave a performance in the arena, which occupied the centre.
Miss Rakestraw's connection with the Press procured us free passes tothe reserved seats close to the ring; my chair was next to Lurana's,and she was graciously pleased to ignore our recent difference. Theentertainment was of the usual variety, I suppose; but, to tell thetruth, I was so absorbed in the bliss of being once more by her sideand watching her face, which looked more dazzling than ever throughthe delicate meshes of her veil, that I have the vaguest recollectionof the earlier items of the programme.
But towards the close there came a performance which I have goodreason to remember.
An enormous elephant entered the circle, drawing a trolley, upon whichwas an iron cage containing forest-bred African lions. After theelectric globes had been lowered, so as to illuminate the interior,"Niono, the Lion King," a dapper, wellmade man, of very much my ownheight and figure, so far as I could judge, went into the cage and putthe animals through various exercises. Niono was succeeded by Mlle.Leonie, the "Circe of the Carnivora," a pretty Frenchwoman, who, as itseemed to me, surpassed him in coolness and daring. There was nothingdisagreeably sensational about the exhibition; all the animals wereevidently under perfect control; the huge, black-maned lions leapedthrough paper hoops and blazing circles without the slightest loss ofeither temper or dignity; the females followed obediently. Only onelioness showed any disposition to be offensive, and _she_ did notventure to go beyond yawning ostentatiously whenever Mlle. Leonie'seye was upon her.
Altogether it was, as I remarked to Lurana at the time, a wonderfulinstance of the natural dominion of man over the animal world. Sheenthusiastically commended the symmetry of Mr Niono's figure, whichdid not strike me as so very much above the average; and to pique her,I expressed equal admiration for Mlle. Leonie, and was gratified toobserve unmistakable signs of jealousy on Lurana's part. But we wereboth agreed that the profession of lion-taming looked more dangerousthan it actually was, and Archibald Chuck mentioned that some townsmanin the provinces had, for a very trifling wager, entered a den oflions in a travelling menagerie with perfect impunity. Miss Rakestrawcapped this by a case from America, in which a young couple hadactually chosen a lion's cage to be married in, though she admittedthat the story was possibly a fabrication.
I walked back with Lurana alone, as we somehow lost sight of Mr Chuckand his _fiancee_ in the crush going out, and on the way home I couldnot refrain from pleading my cause once more. I told her how I hadloved her at first sight, and how many elocution lessons I had enduredfor her sake; I pointed out that I was already receiving a salarysufficient to maintain a wife in comfort, if not luxury; and that hermarried life could hardly be more monotonous and uncongenial than herpresent existence.
She listened attentively, as if moved. Presently she said, "Theodore,I will be perfectly frank. I do like you; I believe I could even loveyou. But I have Spanish blood in my veins. I could never be satisfiedwith a humdrum conventional marriage."
I was inexpressibly shocked. I had no idea that her views were soemancipated.
"Lurana," I said, "believe me, never mind what the lady novelists sayagainst marriage; it may have its disadvantages, but, after all, associety is constituted----"
"You don't understand," she said. "I am not opposed to marriage--witha man who is willing to make some concession, some slight sacrifice,to gratify me. But are you that _kind_ of man, Theodore, I wonder?"
I saw that she was already beginning to yield. "I would doanything--anything in the world you bid me," I cried, "if only youwill be my wife, Lurana."
"I should ask you to do nothing that I am not perfectly prepared to domyself," she said. "A temporary inconvenience, a risk which is themerest trifle. Still, you may think it too much, Theodore."
"Name it," I replied. "The opportunities which the tea trade affordsfor the cultivation of heroism are rare; but there are few risks thatI would shrink from running with you."
"It is only this," she said. "I don't want a commonplace wedding. Iwant one that will be talked about and make a sensation. Will you letme be married in my own way?"
I was rather relieved by what seemed so moderate a demand. "Certainly,darling," I said; "we will be married in Westminster Abbey, by theArchbishop of Canterbury, if you wish it, and it can be arranged. Whatmatter where or how the ceremony take place, or what it costs,provided it makes you mine for ever?"
"Let us be married in the Lion's Cage."]
"Then, Theodore," she said, pressing my arm impulsively with her slimfingers, while the rays of a street lamp in the square fell on herupturned face and shining eyes, "let us be married at the AgriculturalHall--in the Lions' Cage!"
I confess to being considerably startled. I had expected somethingrather out of the common, but nothing in the least like this.
"In the lions' cage!" I repeated, blankly. "Wouldn't that be rather_smelly_, Lurana? And, besides, the menagerie people would never lendit for such a purpose. Where would they put the lions, you know?"
"Why, the lions would be _there_, of course," she said, "or elsethere'd be nothing in it."
"If I am to be married in a lion-cage," I said, with a very feebleattempt at levity, "I should very much prefer that there _was_ nothingin it."
"Ah, you may laugh, Theodore!" she said, "but, after all yourprofessions, surely you won't refuse the very first indulgence I ask!You may think it a mere whim, a girlish caprice; but understandthis--I am thoroughly in earnest about it. If you are willing to marryme as I wish, the wedding may be as soon as ever you please. But ifnot, tell me so plainly, and let us part for ever. Either I will bemarried in my own way, or not at all."
What could I do? It was simply impossible to give her up now, the verymoment after she was won. And to lose her for such a mere punctilio;for, of course, this condition of hers was too fantastic to bepracticable; the Professor would certainly refuse his consent to soeccentric a ceremony; Lurana herself would probably realise beforelong the absurdity of the idea. In the meantime, as her acknowledged_fiance_, I should have the immense advantage of being on the spotwhen she returned to a more reasonable frame of mind.
So I gave way, and assured her that I had no personal objection tolions, and would as soon be married in their presence as elsewhere,provided that we could obtain the necessary permission; and even if Ihad thought this more probable than I did, I believe--so potent wasthe witchery of Lurana's voice and eyes--I should have said preciselythe same.
"Dearest Theodore!" she murmured, "I never really doubted you. I feltso sure that you would be nice and sympathetic about it. If wecouldn't agree about such a trifling thing as where we are to bemarried, we _should_ be unsuited to one another, shouldn't we? Now wewill just walk round the square once more, and then go in and tell theothers what we have arranged."
They had sat down to supper when we entered, and the Professor cast aglance of keen inquiry through his spectacles at us, over the coldbeef and pickles with which he was recruiting his energies after"Hiawatha."
"Yes, papa," said Lurana, calmly, "we _are_ a little late; butTheodore has been asking me to marry him, and I have said I would."
There was an outburst of congratulations from Miss Rakestraw andChuck. Old Polkinghorne thought fit to conceal his joy under a cloakof stagey emotion. "Well, well," he said, "it is Nature's law; theyoung birds spread their wings and quit the warm nest, and the oldones are left to sit and brood over the past. I cannot blame you,child. As for _you_, my boy," he added, extending a flabby hand to me,"all I can say is, there is no one to whom I would so willinglysurrender her."
There was scarcely any one to whom, in my opinion, he would _not_surrender her with the utmost alacrity, for, as I have already hinted,Lurana, with all her irresistible fascination, had a temper of herown, and was apt to make the parental nest a trifle _too_ warm for theelder bird occasionally.
"Yes, papa, we are a little late."]
"And when am I to lose my sunbeam?" he asked. "Not _just_ yet?"
"Theodore wishes to have the marriage as soon as possible," saidLurana, "by special licence."
"Have you settled where?" inquired Miss Rakestraw, with feminineinterest in such details.
"Well," said Lurana slowly, evidently enjoying the effect she wasproducing, "Theodore and I have quite made up our minds to be marriedat the Menagerie--in the den of lions."
"How splendid!" exclaimed the lady journalist. "It's never been doneover here. _What_ a
