POETESS CHARMED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 69, 23 March 1937, Page 7

POETESS CHARMED.

Strange Affair Aired in Paris

Law Courts.

SINGER GAOLED AND FINED

PARIS, March 20.

In a Montmartre cafe chant ant, Madame Edwige Mayen, a poetess, who wore on her ample bosom her ribbon as an officer of the Academie Francaise, was charmed by the voice of Alexis Bilaite. When she told a Paris Court the outcome of that meeting, Alexis was sentenced to eight months' gaol, and ordered to pay £200 damages.

Madame interested herself in his hard lot, and invited Alexis to dinner, where he showed a solid appetite. The friendship progressed until on« evening, after an excellent supper, Alexis stretched out on the sola, and said: "I am comfortable. Here I stay," and so became a permanent guest.

Alexis, who was 21 years younger than the poetess, beat and tyrannised over her, and behaved so scandalously that he drove her to leave home and spend-a week in a hotel; he brought in a negro and other queer visitors. Wrote Verses on Gaolbirds. Telling her story to the Court, madame said that one night Alexis arrived with two cronies, who frankly remarked that they were just out of gaol. She prepared tea, with piles of bread and butter and cakes, and all three ate till 8 p.m., when Alexis donned a Chinese princess' dressing-gown belonging to her.

The President of the Court:. What did you do?

Madame (sighing): I wrote verses. The President: On Alexis and Corydon l Some weeks later Alexis left, taking a superb collection of ivories, and other articles formerly owned by an Albanian prince, including a scimitar, which had cut off some illustrious heads. He also took pawntickets for jewels.

Contemplating Alexis with a disabused smile, madanie said: "I have been deceived in him. I asked him to interpret my last tangoes. I took bim for an artist."

Madame's counsel exalted her talent as a poetess, and showed the Court poems entitled "Love's Sickness," "Towards the Oasis," and "To Forget Thee." °