The Tigress Part 59

He looked at her then for the first time since they had come in. "Save us both?" he queried. "From what, pray?"

"From wretchedness. I've never been loved as I want to be. And you--you won't let me--"

"Good G.o.d!" he caught her up suddenly. "I didn't come here for that!

Keep your tongue off me, Nina, as well as your hands, or--I'll cut it!"

She stretched herself farther across the pillows. "Make everything right," she pleaded earnestly, ignoring his rebuke. "Marry me over again--acknowledge me--be my husband in fact--as you've always been legally--just for a year."

Her voice was low, but thrilling in its eagerness of appeal. And in the dining-room, with ear close to the door, guarding her against a sudden outbreak from her unbalanced companion, Andrews heard all--every uttered word--and understood.

He had imagined it from her words the night before. But now, unwittingly, she had made it plain. What Kneedrock had told Carleigh was true.

Nina was his wife--the wife of his youth--and her marriage with Colonel Darling had been bigamy, committed in ignorance of the truth.

Lord Kneedrock stood motionless and silent. Again his eyes--those eyes so strangely changed--were bent upon the rug at his feet.

And the woman went on: "Just for a year, Hal. That's all. And if I'm not a good wife--if I look aside even a hair's breadth--you may kill me, or I'll kill myself when you give the word."

Then the man before the fireplace seemed to rouse himself out of a dream. There was no question that her entreaty had held him. It had indeed touched the depths of him.

In his mentally dulled state, such a culmination as she begged for had seemed not only desirable, but possible.

But now, all at once, there had floated back a memory of another face and another voice--a face and a voice too recently seen and heard to be quite clouded and hushed by the present.

Figuratively he shook himself, drew his hands from his pockets, lifted his tawny head, and turned upon her his unfamiliar eyes.

"Very, very pretty," he sneered cruelly. "But it's too late. I've another love--all my own, too, and not tarnished and worn thin by general use. You're no wife of mine--remember that--you sacrificed all claim. Besides, you're--you're--"

The blood was pounding in his neck, and he paused to jerk at his collar in an effort to free his throat.

"You're not a woman," he went on scornfully. "You're only half woman.

You're other half tigress. Oh, I know you. I've been reading up on your breed, and I've met a few in my time. Lately I've been looking over some at the Zoo. And when all's said and done, I prefer the incarnate to the reincarnate." He stepped back a pace and viewed her appraisingly.

As she half-sat, half-lay there on the cus.h.i.+oned couch, all her lithe length stretched in beautiful outline, there was indeed a suggestion of the grace of the cat tribe at rest, long, sinuous, lazy. And to Kneedrock's obsessed vision this became more than a suggestion, more than a similarity.

"By gad," he exclaimed, "I've seen my old girl in her cage just like that, only a thousand times more beautiful! And she's safe, too! That's the best of it. She only gets what's fed to her. Pity you weren't barred up while you were a cub.

"I go there just to see her eat. She has your table manners to a dot.

It's very amusing to me to see her claws come out of their silken sheaths, and clutch and tear, and her teeth rend, while her lips seem to run blood.

"Beautiful exhibition, I can tell you. Wouldn't miss it for a bag of sovereigns. 'Ah,' I say, 'there's Nina over again!' Only Nina gets 'em alive, and goes for their hearts first. That's her special t.i.tbit.

Man-eater, is Nina! Nothing else satisfies her."

Nina buried her face in her arms, and her body quivered. For a little she had almost fancied him unchanged. But there was no question now. He had railed at her before. But never like this. The idea seemed to carry him away. He went on, repeating himself, growing more impa.s.sioned with each outburst.

Finally he jerked out his watch and glanced at it hurriedly.

"Haven't a minute to spare. They feed her at three--three sharp now.

Winter schedule's on, you know."

But Nina didn't move. Her body had ceased to quiver. She lay as one dead. Kneedrock's tirade, reasonless, rhymeless, with its seemingly endless iteration and reiteration of ideas, phrases, words; all combining to form one great outpouring volume of contemptuous, reproachful, mad rebuke, had stunned her--deafened her.

Andrews, listening, heard the abrupt break from harangue to expressed purpose, and noted that there was, from his companion, no response. It was not his desire to disturb Nina, nor to again show himself to Kneedrock.

From the dining-room he sought the servants' quarters, and directed the housemaid to go at once to the drawing-room with the caller's mackintosh and hat, lest by some quick mental switch the madman revert to the subject of his mania and forget his intention of departure.

As it happened, the girl met the viscount in the pa.s.sage. He accepted his proffered apparel without so much as a word, brushed past her, hurried through the entrance-hall, and was gone--forgetting even to close the door.

It seemed that the impulse to visit the tiger-house, once awakened, was as irresistible as the tides of ocean.

Andrews, having heard the maid close the door, went at once to Mrs.

Darling. She recognized his step, and looked up in pleased surprise.

"You here still? I am so glad."

"Did you think I could leave you with him--alone?" he asked.

"But your business?"

"My business can wait. You needed me."

She gave him her hand.

"I am sick to my very soul," she said miserably. "I have abased myself and been kicked in the face."

"But he is not responsible," he reminded her; "you know that. I can conceive of nothing more pitiable."

She straightened herself, sitting erect.

"I know it. For just a little I thought only of myself. Something must be done. But what? I feel so helpless."

"He'll probably be refused admission to the gardens," said Andrews.

"Then he's sure to make trouble," Nina declared. "There will be a scene and exposure. He may be hurt, too."

"Why not try the sphinx solicitor yourself? I'll go with you."

She sprang up at that.

"It's the only way," she agreed. "He must do something. I'll make him do something."

Five minutes later they were in a taxicab together, rolling through the rain to Fleet Street. Arrived at the Inner Temple, old Mr. Widdicombe received Nina with chilling politeness. She was painfully nervous and obviously distressed.

"I've come about Lord Kneedrock," she said, fingering her handkerchief.

"Have you seen him recently?"

Mr. Widdicombe nodded. "I have, Mrs. Darling," he said.

"How recently?"