Chapter I: Front Matter

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Anniversary.

THE TORTOISESHELL CAT
_by_ Naomi G. Royde-Smith

“What is most conspicuous in THE TORTOISESHELL CAT is its sunlit
humor. The book is more sparkling than brilliant, and quite as
gentle as it is shrewd. Describing the growth to maturity of a
charming girl who though adult in body has stayed adolescent in
mind, it successfully insinuates the atmosphere of a time when
everything is quaint and lovely and obscure, when all strangers
are delightful and all events are nice.”—_London Outlook._

“This is a modern novel of the deepest dye. THE TORTOISESHELL CAT
is very clever, very finished, very witty, very daring. ... So
entertaining that one feels, on turning the three hundredth and
tenth page, that our acquaintanceship with the queer,
sophisticated, cranky or merely charming people in the story has
been cut short too soon. Naughty perhaps, but nice.”—_London
Sketch._

“It must be said to be undeniably well done. Life is here touched
in with surety, candour and courage, and all through, the author
keeps on her style the charm with which she endows a variety of
characters.”—_Aberdeen Press and Journal._

“To come upon such a novel as Miss Naomi Royde-Smith’s THE
TORTOISESHELL CAT is, in comparison with the bulk of recent
fiction, like having a bath after a ball.... In the characters of
V. V. and Lady Winona Miss Smith has compassed successes we have
not recently seen equalled.”—_Liverpool Courier._

“An extremely entertaining and exciting story.”—_The New
Statesman._

“Its wit and humor, its pawky asides, its clever situations and
sparkling dialogue demand a large constituency for this story. It
is certainly the best novel we have read this year.”—_The Weekly
Westminster._

“She has the ease and decision in putting words and sentences
together that show the born storyteller. THE TORTOISESHELL CAT
will establish for her at once a host of readers clamouring for
more.”—_London Daily News._

“Miss Naomi Royde-Smith writes with a crisp touch and a kind of
friendly gaiety; it responds with a sparkle to the humor of life
but it is not afraid of the shadows. With an obvious relish for
character and the freshness of quite ordinary things.”—_London
Times Literary Supplement._

“What cool and deliberate skill, what mastery of sheer
craftsmanship.... Altogether one of the very best of recent
novels.”—_Bookman Journal._

THE TORTOISESHELL CAT

The
Tortoiseshell Cat

A Novel By
N. G. ROYDE-SMITH

Back to Lesbos, back to the hills
whereunder
Shone Mitylene—
Unbeloved, unseen in the ebb of twilight—
Purged not in Lethe.

SWINBURNE.

NEW YORK
BONI & LIVERIGHT
1925

COPYRIGHT 1925 · BY
BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES.

First printing, November, 1925
Second printing, November, 1925

TO
WALTER DE LA MARE

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I VOWEL-SOUNDS 13
II LILAC 47
III THE TORTOISESHELL CAT 120
IV LARRY BROWNE 155
V ILLUSION 202
VI AUNT ELIZABETH 236
VII THE FOURTH MOVEMENT 273

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The action of this novel is set in London in
1912-13, but William is the only character in
the tale who is drawn from life.

THE TORTOISESHELL CAT