A Tell-Tale Clock.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 89, 14 February 1885, Page 5

A Tell-Tale Clock.

An amusing story reaches us from Paris. On Friday last a lady, having paid her hotel bill, sent away her boxes on a cab and sallied fortn on foot. No sooner had she departed than the landlord discovered that the clock had disappeared from the mantelpiece of the room which his late lodger had been occupying, though he remembered to have seen it there subsequent to her trunks being despatched. Convinced that she must be the thief, he rushed out in hot pursuit, and overtaking her, charged her with the robbery and gave her into custody, the lady meanwhile protesting loudly against the indignity offered her, and vowing vengeance against the traducer. She was, however, taken before the jvge cVimtrudion, 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, lo ! twelve o'clock rang forth in clear tones from the region of madame's dress improver. The expression of consternation depicted upon the fair pilferer's countenance, together with the appositeness of the quaint phenomenon, were too much for the gravity of the officials, who burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Five minutes later a female warder returned the telltale timepiece to its rightful owner. Will Mr Oscar Wilde still insist upon "the utter uselessness of that hideous monstrosity — tho bustle ?"