Robert Hichens

The Princess And The Jewel Doctor Robert Hichens

In St. Petersburg society there may be met at the present time a certain Russian Princess, who is noted for her beauty, for an ugly defect-she has lost the forefinger of her left hand-and for her extraordinary attachment to the city of Tunis, where she has spent at least three months of each year since 1890-the year in which she suffered the accident that deprived her of a finger. What that accident was, and why she is so passionately attached to Tunis, nobody in Russia seems to know, not even her doting husband, who bows to all her caprices. But two persons could explain the matter-a Tunisian guide named Abdul, and a rather mysterious individual who follows a humble calling in the Rue Ben-Ziad, close to the Tunis bazaars.