COUNTESS'S PASSION FOR MUSICIAN.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12763, 3 February 1910, Page 1

COUNTESS'S PASSION FOR MUSICIAN.

I A "Lloyds News" representative states that Mr Magnus de Laing (son of Mrs Laing-Meason), a talented young Now Zealand pianist, on his way back to England after a most suc- > cessful tour of tlie colonies, gave a , recital in Vienna. Whilst there he > was the object of considerable atteni tion on the part of a number of female '. admirers. i One of them, a certain Russian 1 countess, a beautiful brunette of '. thirty or thirty-five, fell madly in , love with the handsome., -pale young : pianist with the wonderful eyes, and I her attentions became so pressing that Mr Dc Laing's friends "spirited" him away to England. The countess was inconsolable; but when she heard that he was to pltfy at St. James's Hall she hurried to England as fast as expresses and mail packets could bring her. When Do Laing stepped on tho p^atform he was dismayed to see in a prominent seat in the stalls his titled admirer. Later, when he was pt Frascati's at supper with ihis mother and his agent, the lady appeared and took & seat at an adjoining table. After supper she followed the party out into the street, and. addressing the pianist's mother, asked_ that she might bo allowed a few miiiutes' conversation with her son. Consent was no. sooner given than the infatuated, woman seized the young man by tho shoulders, pinned him against the wall, passionately declared her great lore for him, and begged him to elope with her in her oar, a large highpowered one which was waiting close by. After some struggling he. was freed from the lady's embraces and hustled into a. taxi-cab. The countess is said to have plenty of money. She is a well-made, handsome woman, with dark hair, straight eyebrows, a Jewish type of nose, de!i : cately shaped, and a square, resolute chin — a woman of great determination. ■ •■ The next morning Mr De Laing tvas engaged to perform at a. peer's house in the West End. As he was on his way to keep the engagement the countess dashed up in a motor car, persuaded him to drive with her, and instead of sotting him clown at his destination, whirled him round and round London hour after hour, till not only the time of his engagement passed, but till midnight struck and the early hours of the morning came and went. It was a mad, wild, passion.ate <lrive, the countess imploring the handsome and gifted young pianist to elope with her, the latter resisting all entreaties. "It's no use," he says; "I cannot love her as she loves me. ' At last, finding all entreaties useless, the countess set him down, in the mid. dip of the night, and drove off. A- day or two later the young man — lie is only twenty-one years of age — whilst waiting outside the Alhambra for a friend at whoso house he intended to give a recital — was astonished- by the appearance of the c-ountess's motor. An unsuccessful attempt was then madp to kidnap him. The mother, greatly alarmed at these happenings, decided to place the whole, matter m the hands of Mr Biden Stce'.e, solicitor, who is endeavouring to trace the countess. The lady bar., however, temporarily disappeared.