“My husband has asked me to apologize to you, Mr. Marshall King,” said she, standing with downcast eyes before me.

“Please do not say another word, Mrs. King.”

Her dark eyes suddenly blazed out at me.

“You fool!” she hissed, with frantic vehemence, and turning on her heel swept back to the house.

The insult was so outrageous, so insufferable, that I could only stand staring after her in bewilderment.  I was still there when my host joined me.  He was his cheery, chubby self once more.

“I hope that my wife has apologized for her foolish remarks,” said he.

“Oh, yes—­yes, certainly!”

He put his hand through my arm and walked with me up and down the lawn.

“You must not take it seriously,” said he.  “It would grieve me inexpressibly if you curtailed your visit by one hour.  The fact is—­there is no reason why there should be any concealment between relatives—­that my poor dear wife is incredibly jealous.  She hates that anyone—­male or female—­should for an instant come between us.  Her ideal is a desert island and an eternal tete-a-tete.  That gives you the clue to her actions, which are, I confess, upon this particular point, not very far removed from mania.  Tell me that you will think no more of it.”

“No, no; certainly not.”

“Then light this cigar and come round with me and see my little menagerie.”

The whole afternoon was occupied by this inspection, which included all the birds, beasts, and even reptiles which he had imported.  Some were free, some in cages, a few actually in the house.  He spoke with enthusiasm of his successes and his failures, his births and his deaths, and he would cry out in his delight, like a schoolboy, when, as we walked, some gaudy bird would flutter up from the grass, or some curious beast slink into the cover.  Finally he led me down a corridor which extended from one wing of the house.  At the end of this there was a heavy door with a sliding shutter in it, and beside it there projected from the wall an iron handle attached to a wheel and a drum.  A line of stout bars extended across the passage.

“I am about to show you the jewel of my collection,” said he.  “There is only one other specimen in Europe, now that the Rotterdam cub is dead.  It is a Brazilian cat.”

“But how does that differ from any other cat?”

“You will soon see that,” said he, laughing.  “Will you kindly draw that shutter and look through?”

I did so, and found that I was gazing into a large, empty room, with stone flags, and small, barred windows upon the farther wall.  In the centre of this room, lying in the middle of a golden patch of sunlight, there was stretched a huge creature, as large as a tiger, but as black and sleek as ebony.  It was simply a very enormous and very well-kept black cat, and it cuddled up and basked in that yellow pool of light exactly as a cat would do.  It was so graceful, so sinewy, and so gently and smoothly diabolical, that I could not take my eyes from the opening.