LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2575, 8 July 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE LADY MAYORESS’ SUPPER, [Translated from the German rpesially for the Globe by “Cinderella.” (i Concluded .) 11. The banka of the lake looked so lonely and desolate as Lady Kohler hastened np to it and stood hidden by the thick shrubbery. She lifted the fish and hurled it away from her so energetically that it described quite a circle in tho air, fell with a splash, and initantly sank. 1 Now heaven be thanked ! ’ murmured tho Lady Mayoress, breathing freely and turning to go. Suddenly a rough man’s voice called from the other aide of the lake, — • Ah. what la this ? Who threw something into the water ? Wait you rogue, I’m coming after you ! ’ Amiz.d and terrified Lady Kohler battened on, but that did not help her. Her aoourer was at her side in an instant, and overwhelming her with abase called loudly for a gendarme In the utmost extremity, hardly able tojspeak intelligibly, tho lady entreated him in a trembling voice to be silent, and held her purse towards him. But the man, an nndergardener, cnly called louder, and kept fast hold of the nnh ppy lady’s arm. Pvop’e began to collect from all sides, and harried up to them, and a crowd gathered round the despairing Mayoress and her captor. Here and there someone in the crowd remembered to have seen a lady with a white parcel in her arms stealing from place to place, and at last an old woman went so far as to declare that the bundle which had been thrown into the lake looked fxrotly like a little child, and she herself had seen it thrown. So tho crowd went on talking and explaining to one another. Lady Koh'er begged that they would only let her speak. The gardener shouted at her and paid not the slightest attention to what she was able to articulate. At last several gendarmes arrived upon the scone, attracted by the noise and disturbance.

They called upon tho people to be silent and upon the lady to speak. She had so far recovered as to be able to understand

that she need not relate ber adventures bo fore the crowd, and, above all, that she

must conceal her name if she did not wish the whole afffir to be published the next day in the Viennese journal. Bhe said shs would expla’n herself to no one but the Inspector. This personage then ordered the people to disperse, and the Mayoress told her dreadful story, while the curious waited at a distance so hear how it all would end.

1 But you know, madam, ’ said one of the gendarmes when the had finished, the one who had always acted as spokesman, “anyone might say what you have said, but whether It is 1 1 no or not remains to bo proved. You will do me the favor to follow mo to tho polioo officer,’ Lady Kohler shrieked. ‘I go with you? I P Never I ” and she hastened on a few steps to escape from her terrible fate. But the gendarme followed and laid his hand upon her arm. * Oome quietly with me, and cause no further scandal,’ he said, politely but decidedly, ‘7 he crowd 1s only waiting for an excuse to make a disturbance. Come, madam, it is the wisest thing to do ” The unhappy lady wrung her bauds and looked anxiously round. If anyone knew that she waa on her way to the polios station ! She. tho Mayoress of Kohlersberg I It was too dreadful! But there was nothing for it but to bring the terrible scene to an end as quickly as possible. 1 Lot ns go, then,’ she said, in a low voice to the gendarme, and she drew her veil closer about her face, and pnt her pocket handkerchief to her month, ‘Yon will walk bzhlnd me, and not at my side, will yon not P’ • Certainly,’ answered her guard, bowing ; ‘it is most disagreeable to me, madam, but it mast be proved whether what yon say i? true or not; also what you did really throw into the lake.’

Lady Kohler llew rather than walked to tho park gates, olojely followed by the gendarme and his companions, who had mixed with the crowd, and were trying ineffectually to disperse it. Curiosity in large towns—ah! and in small ones too —is a master which does not easily let its victim escape. They soon emerged from the park Into the principal street. How horribly bright seemed the mnobreviled Viennese gas lamps to the Mayoress I to-night. The guard stopped a moment to | arrange the procession. Msny people bsgan i to join It.

Lady Kohler followed like a person in a I dream. She saw and heard nothing. The awful circumstance of being arrested pervaded her whole consciousness. The only fact evident to her was that she was there a prisoner. She had never imagined such a possibility in her most horrible nightmares. They were now taking her to the police station. She—the admired! the wondered at I ths envied !

Suddenly sha stood t-eforo a row of eatlieges ; lanterns flasbe a, and she saw that several hackney coaches stood close to her.

Then one of the gendarmes was prompt:d by tome kind angel to say—--1 Shell we take a coach, graojons lady ’ Ah ! there was a relief, also a ray of hope a chance of deliverance ! Lady Kohler turned with a gesture of assent. 'I he guard understood her. He quickly opened the door of the nearest carriage, th-i lady sprang in, he jumped on to the box, and they went rattling down the street towards the Austrian Hotel,

Lady Kohler sank back in the carriage and relieved herself by a burst of bitter tears. She composed herself with difficulty; she ran over in her mind all her acquaintances to decide npon whom she should oall before the magistrate. And then she mnst give her name, which until mw she had carefully concealed from her guards. It won’d be made public, would appear in the morning pipers. Despair seized her when she thought all this. That detestable fuh! Never la her

life would she eat or buy another one. And 8 now the coach rolled past Bt. Augustine’s Church—the end of their journey was nearly 8 come. r But the number of carriages rendered it impossible to get on. A young aide de camp galloped past, his horse slipped on the hard road, making the sparks fly. The animal plunged forward and nearly fell, placing its rider in a very critical situation. The carriage stopped, the gendarmes sprang f om the box, his first thought being to help his superior, j The carriage drew up to the spot, and a ia large crowd collected, partly to help, partly j. to look on. Like ligttiing a bold detere ruination darted into the Lady Mayoress’s e distracted mind. Here was an opportunity 0 fpr escape. Her eyes suddenly fell on a aign--1 board on which was written Weidenkror ch n A Station. She softly opened the door to the left and crept out without shutting it. She jj stole forward a few steps and looked round. [4 No one noticed her. She passed quickly and , quietly aoross the Kelt Alice, which ausxi rs d to the London Rotten Row. A tramcar came d rat ling up behind her. sireening h< r for i- awhile from the gs'j> of the people on the y footpath, aud then the dark shadow cast by lt the Council f hamber gave her shelter. In 19 fire minutes she sprang Into an omnibus. r " She was saved ! l 0 With a thankful heart Lady Kohler rose , r next morning. She had. it is true, passed a couple of terrible hours in the night at the a- reroll ertion of the wild terror and fright she ,u had endured the previous evening, but the Id remembrance of the Weidentronchen id Station and the courage with which sha hud !® aocompl shed her flight, filled her with * n gratified pride, and at last she slept to awake refreshed and invigorated the next m rnid * ri SThe celebration of her husband’o birthday was most brilliant. The assembled guests ia loudly praised the housewifely skill of the k- Lady Mayoress, and exclaimed aloud that £- she had on this occasion surpassed! herself '/ aid performed incredible feats. None dreamt 19 in what a literal sense these words came 18 home to her. The lady herself beamed with happiness. She reflected how luoki’y things 3 _ had turned out, and what might have jq happened. She said, travestying the saying ip of Napoleon, * Yon must sometimes wash r . your dirty linen in public.* 3r The company separated at midnight, after rt a very pleasant and merry evonlcg, and 5f when the husband and wife were left.alone, 10 the Mayor embraced the companion of his rB life and said, deeply moved, 3 1 * You have brought me nothing bat honor , 0 and joy. God p-eserve you, my dear Caroq line! ’ A few days afterwards everybody read the following in the papers, ‘A moat stirring scene was enacted in the evening o the day before last in the Park. A lady belonging to the higher classes, who had bean observed lingering about the sidewalks for a considerable time with a manifestly irresolute step, was seen by a byir slander to throw the body of a little child Into the lake, she first having pressed it to his bosom and blessed It. The lady was Immediately arrested. She resisted, though alone, and was overpowered with diffhulty. y An incredible number of people had assem;o bled by this time, and accompanied the cortege. Seven gendarmes had the greatest n difficulty in compelling the lady to go with e them. At last they succeeded ia putting i. her Into a carriage, from which she escaped soon afterwards in the most incompre--1 henalble manner, Detectives are on her d track. In sjlte of the moat strenuous exers tiona on the part of our gendarmes the body 0 of the child which was thrown into the lake has not been recovered up to the present i- time, and the utmost anxiety is felt to know a haw this drama will end!’ This anxiety ia not yet allayed. But the i. Lardy Mayore s after this event became more r modest anl indulgent, and if sha were told 1 of a lady who had been taken in in some f purchase or ether, she said meekly, , ‘ Oh, that might hay pen to anyone, even j r to myself.’ 9 .. 1... i j" The Real Sufferer—A famous surgeon cd viaes one of his patients to undergo an j operation. ‘ls it very severe?’ asks the j patient. ‘Not for the patient,” says the I doctor; ‘we put him to sleep j but vary hard on the operator.’ ‘How so?' ‘We suffer terribly from anxiety. Just think, it only succeeds once in a hundred times.’