BETRAYED BY A BUSTLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5220, 28 January 1885, Page 3

BETRAYED BY A BUSTLE.

Tho following story conies from Paris : — A lady heaving paid her hotel bill, sent away her box on a cab and sallied forth on foot. No sooner had she departed than the landlord discovered that the clock hnd disappeared from the mantelpiece of the room whijh his late lodger had been occupying, though he remembered to havo wen it there subsequent to her trunks having been despatched. Convinced that .she must be the thief, he rnahed out in hot pursuit, and overtaking her, he charged her with the robbery, and gave her into custody, the lady meanwhile protesting 1 * loudly against the indignity offered her, and vowing vengeance against the traduwr. She was, however, taken before tho Jiuje : d'instnielion, to whom she resumed her ! torrent of indignant denial with the extraordinary volubility peculiar to the daughters of Gaul. Her indignation was at its height when Xo ! twelve o'clock rang ' forth in clear tones from the region of J niadame's dress improver. The expression lof consternation depicted upon tho fair i pilferer's countenance, together with the i appositeness of the quaint phenomenon, ! were too much for the gravity of the j officials, who burst iuto a fit of nncontrollj able laughter. Five minutes later a female • warder returned the telltale timepiece to j its owner. Will Mr Oscar Wilde still [ insist upon " the utter ÜBelessness of that hideous monstrosity— the bustle ? "