The last visitor

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Clara lingered in the travelling menagerie after her cousins had hurried towards the musicians. The leopard was a disappointment. It lay in the corner of its cage like a rug carelessly thrown aside, its golden coat dulled by dust. Clara tapped the bars with the end of her umbrella and commanded it to stand. The animal did not stir. Laughing at its laziness, she turned away.

Behind her, there was a soft movement. The leopard had risen. It advanced without haste, placing one paw before another until its face was close to the bars. Clara could see a raw strip on its shoulder and the narrow path its pacing had worn across the floor. Its eyes did not plead with her; they held her still. She lowered the umbrella.

At the doorway, Clara looked back. The leopard remained where she had left it, watching the empty patch of ground on which she had stood. Outside, the drums were beating and her cousins were calling, but she could not recover her laughter. It seemed to her that she, not the leopard, had been briefly exhibited.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to show Clara’s changing relationship with the leopard. Support your answer with references to the passage.