The more we reflect upon this question, the harder it is to answer. It involves a study of the human heart which leads us through devious mazes of passion, out of which it is difficult to find our way. Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the question depended upon yourself, but upon that hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy. She had lost him, but who should have him? —“The Lady, or the Tiger?”
Frank R. Stockton

What is the main question the author is building through suspense?

Will the citizens demand that the princess’s lover be allowed to live?
Will the king let the princess marry her lover, or make him marry a courtier?
Will the princess choose to let her lover live, or send him to his death?
Will the tiger kill the princess, or will it kill her lover?