I had seen a large iron gateway with a wide courtyard beyond, and we were in front of a little door leading into quite a small, bare-looking room, where we found a little man.
“Mr. Cross?” we said.
“That’s my name,” he replied.
“I want to buy some lions,” I then said.
He began to laugh, and he asked,
“Do you really, mademoiselle? Are you so fond of animals? I went to London last week to see the Comédie Française, and I saw you in ‘Hernani’ ...”
“It wasn’t from that you discovered that I liked animals?” I said to him.
“No, it was a man who sells dogs in St. Andrew’s Street who told me; he said you had bought two dogs from him and that if it had not been for the gentleman who was with you, you would have bought five.”
He told me all this in very bad French, but with a great deal of humor.
“Well, Mr. Cross,” I said, “I want two lions to-day.”