"I think you are all very silly," she declared. "Fancy connecting the two facts! He's probably doing it on a wager—or been doing it." But she was disturbed, nevertheless.
"The tigress is a very handsome beast," continued the duke, "and—you may as well have the worst of it—he talks to her. He mumbles under his breath. Sometimes it's a tone that is most adoring, and again he berates her scandalously. And, Nina, you'd never imagine it, but it's quite true—the creature seems to understand."
Then she laughed nervously. "No," she said. "I won't believe that. It's too silly for words. I'm surprised at you, Pucketts, taking such a thing seriously. Nibbetts has been playing a joke on you. And your imagination has done the rest. I never heard such ridiculous folderol in all my life."
She stood up and started to move away, but the duke was by her side.
"There's one thing he says that is quite plain," he continued. "I heard it and Bellingdown heard it. We were there beside him, and he didn't so much as see us. He was blind to everything except that great, lithe, purring she-cat."
Nina turned to him. In spite of her little speech of repudiation she was all a-quiver from head to feet. "What was it?" she asked.
"He was calling the beast Nina."