A Passion in the Desert by Honore De Balzac; -- Translated by Ernest Dowson -- Can animals really feel passion or empathy?One soldier learned a hard lesson and lost a good friend in the process.

**** "The whole show is dreadful," she cried coming out of the menagerie of M.Martin.She had just been looking at that daring speculator "working with his hyena,"--to speak in the style of the programme."By what means," she continued, "can he have tamed these animals to such a point as to be certain of their affection for----"