Second wife left in private for Kipling's protagonist (6)
I believe the answer is:
mowgli
'kipling's protagonist' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'second wife left in private' is the wordplay.
'second wife' becomes 'mow' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'private' becomes 'gi'.
'l' put into 'gi' is 'gli'.
'mow'+'gli'='MOWGLI'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mowgli that I've seen before include "Jungle Book 'man-cub'" , "The Jungle Book hero" , "Kipling character" , "boy reared by wolves" , "Jungle Book boy (Kipling)" .)