GOLDEN-SPOON COUNTESS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 February 1927, Page 4

GOLDEN-SPOON COUNTESS

COMEDY WITH '.EX-HUSBAND. BERLIN. Dec. 21. Tho Countess I’auT Keglevich is one of those people who cannot understand life without tons of money. She was born with a silver, one may say a golden, .spoon in her mouth and started life as the Baroness Alice Kohner, daughter of an immensely ■ rich banker who hud been given the title of baron by the Emperor Fbancis : Joseph. j At the age of 20 the Baroness Alice ; married Herr von Ledorer, who had I great estates in Hungary. Fifteen 1 years later the couple agreed to get ' a divorce, and as her portion of the estate, tho baroness got the tidy sum of £300,000. One chapter of Iter life was over and another was opened in Vienna. She lived in princely style and devoted her- ; self to tho difficult hut exciting busiI ness' of escaping from the mere aris- ! toerncy of finance to the charmed ; circle of the aristocracy of tho most exi e lusive Court in Europe. ! .She w)is rich and she was still beaui tiful. and as wife of a Minister of ; Foreign Affairs, or at least of an Ambassador, she might have played a brilliant, perhaps Inn historic part.

MERELY A COUNT. She secured, however, nothing better than an ordinary count, who lived on bis estate and manufactured brandy. Tlieu came tho war and money in Austria melted like snow in tbe sun. Por’ipps it was a case of love flying out of the window when poverty comes in at the door; but whatever it was the countess decided to close the second chapter of matrimonial life and she wont through her second divorce. There was not much to be got out of he - ('o--i't, i—d -yli'.n she retired to Budapest she bad little more than the small income .■•Mowed her kv the blinking dynasty of Kohner, from which she sprang.. A WINDFALL. Suddenly she appeared to have plenty of money and people wrndered wlnit lucky windfall she had had. Suspicions were raised when a short while ingo the newspapers stated that bills of exchange, amounting to £IB.OOO, with the forged signature of Herr von Lederor iho first husband of tbe counters. were in circulation. Tho countess immediately went to tbe police to defend her honour. She stated that she had been empowered by her former husband to sign bis name on bills amounting to six milliards of crowns. She brought witnesses to prove that her statement was true and that*the arrangement with Ilerr von Ledorer had been made in the Royal Hotel at Budapest.

There bad been, it was stated, a meeting between tho two in a private room, and the quarrel between them was so violent that every word of their conversation was heard in the hall of I lie hotel. The countess had demanded the payment of money which had been owig to her over since she and Herr von Lederor wore divorced. Tlu; exhusband luid declared that he would not give her a halfpenny, and finally had told her that she could make out bills of exchange in bis name and try to get them discounted.

When this statement appeared in tbe newspapers several persons who did not know tho countess came to confirm tbe story. A general, a banker, a colonel