MASKED LADY MUSICIANS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 81

MASKED LADY MUSICIANS.

A LONDON MYSTERY.

Yet another charming mystery has been added to the many which make the Western squares 'of London as romantic as the 2few Arabian -'Nightc 'Two maskea ladies, both obviously young, both divinely tali; and both, as the crepe fails to hide, much more than common fair, have begun to appear there night after "night, seated in a rude cart containing a strangely-shaped box, ano. (gays the London correspondent of the Liverpool Courier) r drawn by a spavined horse led by a dour-faced driver. The cart stops. » The driver leans sombrely against the shafter One of- 1 the masked figures uprises — the strange box is discovered n to be a piano — and in another moment a swift prelude has rippled out, and a, round, throbbing; soprano voice ts soaring through the silences. The young voice sways, the white fingers flash easily above the keys, the masks show queerly in the vague lights of the lamps. A little crowd •inexplicably" cbllects,Bhirt-fro^its and cigarends gleam, on "the balconies, and — the sad-faced driver may be observed to have pulled .himself together, and to be making an undemonstrative pilgrimage with another much smaller box. The box ceases, the singer resumes her seat, and the strange equipage, jolting like a tumbril,. carries the silent figures further into the' night.

Rumour, of course, ever busy on such occasions," has not failed -to surround the apparition with much conventional romance. ' The girls are girls of high birth, Snaking a tour out of sheer devilry and for the sake of a startling wager, or they are once-famous concert artistes whom competition has forced into the streets, or they aye women of title whom the recent financial crisis has robbed of all their fortune. Toe second of these speculations is probably nearest the mark. For the songs that are are always concert-room songs, and the manner- of their singing betrays the practised professional. And although! somewhat less melodramatic than the others, this theory does nothing to reduce 'the affair's intrinsic romance. For Us intrinsic romance is due to just that concert-room quality in the singing,' as all your readers would agree could they once near, as I heard the other night, Tosti's voluptuous "Good-bye" ringing passionately out amongst the -trees ami scattered lights -of one of Belgravia's- opalescent squares. _

' In cold weather try WOLFE'S SCHNAPPS tot, with lenuufe