The Panther

in the "Jardin des Plantes" in Paris

Passing back and forth the bars his gaze is grown so weary that it doesn't grasp anything any more. To him it's as if there were a thousand bars and behind the thousand bars, no world.

The supple gait of easy, strong steps, turning round in the narrowest circle, is like a dance of power around a center where a great will stands stolid.

Just once in a while the curtain of the pupils lifts silently--. Then an image enters and passes through the tense stillness of the limbs--and fades when it reaches the heart.