WHERE THE CLOCK WENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1303, 14 February 1885, Page 2

WHERE THE CLOCK WENT.

The following story reaches us from Paris. A lady having 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 had disappeared [from the mantel piece of the room which his late lodger had been occupying, though Le remembered to have seen it there subsequently to her trunk having been despatched. Convinced that she must be the thief, he rushed out in hot pursuit, and, overtaking her, charged her with robbery and gave her in custody, the lady meanwhile protesting loudly against the indignity offered her, and vowing vengeance against her traducer. She was, however, taken before the Juge d' Instruction, to whom she resumed her torrent of indignant denials with the extraordinary volubility of the daughters of Gaul. Her indignation was at its height, when, 10l 12 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 after the female warder returned the telltale timepiece to its owner. Will Mr Oscar Wilde still insist upon “the utter uselessness of that hideous monstrosity—the bustle 1”