The Tigress   By: Anne Warner (1869-1913)

BY ANNE WARNER

AUTHOR OF " The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, " The "Susan Clegg" Stories , etc.

Frontispiece by R. F. SCHABELITZ

NEW YORK W. J. WATT & COMPANY PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY W. J. WATT & COMPANY

PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. Y.

[Illustration: It pleased her to crouch on this, remembering how Kneedrock had declared her to be the reincarnation of just such another creature of the jungle.]

CONTENTS

I. ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT IN SIMLA 7

II. A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRETEMPS 18

III. THE COBRA IN THE CORNER 29

IV. A WHITE SLIPPER AND A RED STAIN 38

V. THE QUESTION OF THE DEAD ALIVE 49

VI. A HARD MAN AND BITTER 59

VII. THE CROSS AND THE CROWN 69

VIII. IN A WORLD WITHIN A WORLD 80

IX. THERE'S A LASS IN DUNDEE! 91

X. A PRAYER AND A PROPHECY 102

XI. THINGS ONE SHOULDN'T SAY 113

XII. THE JOY OF INTEREST 123

XIII. SURPRISES FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED 131

XIV. TRUTHS, KISSES, AND DUCAL ENNUI 140

XV. A LAST WALK AND A LAST APPEAL 149

XVI. WHERE AMOR LED 160

XVII. THE INTERVENTION OF THE UNFORESEEN 171

XVIII. AT CROSS SADDLE 182

XIX. FATE'S FEARFUL INGENUITY 187

XX. FIRES OF ONE KIND AND ANOTHER 191

XXI. AN END TO THE GOSSIP 200

XXII. THE INTERRUPTED HONEYMOON 211

XXIII. A MYSTERIOUS WIDOW OF BATH 222

XXIV. THE DISINTERESTED MARRIED MAN 233

XXV. THE INTERESTED MARRIED MAN 245

XXVI. THREE PERSONS GO THREE WAYS 250

XXVII. REASON TOTTERING ON ITS THRONE 261

XXVIII. INCARNATE OR REINCARNATE 269

XXIX. THE MANTLE OF HEROISM 280

XXX. A LETTER AND A LEGACY 292

XXXI. WHAT THEY KNEW AND THOUGHT 299

THE TIGRESS

CHAPTER I

On a Moonlight Night in Simla

"I do hope you are not going to weep!" said Nina.

She and he sat on a far sheltered corner of the terrace in the gray shadow, and she had just told him that "everything was over."

As "everything" had been going on for the best part of three months, it was, perhaps, only natural that she should experience some concern as to how he meant to take it.

He was slow to reassure her, and she was impatient. "Because," she explained, "I never know just what to say or do when they weep. I'm never at a loss at other times; but "

"Of course I shall not weep," he protested at length, with something of indignation in his tone. "Whatever gave you such an idea?"

"It isn't unusual," she explained. "Sometimes they storm. I've known them to swear most awfully. But when they are young, as you are, they so often just melt; and it is very trying, you know. Perhaps you'll swear. I'd much rather have it so. There was Emborough, for instance. He "

"If you don't mind," he cut in, "I'd prefer not to hear."

"Ah, I see!" she exclaimed quickly. "You are neither going to weep nor storm. You are going to be just plain disagreeable. And if there is anything I hate it is a man who mopes."

He was thinking very hard, and for the moment he had failed to follow her. Disaster had dropped upon him like a bolt from the blue at the moment of his greatest confidence.