A GAY LOTHARIO.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2968, 20 August 1878, Page 3

A GAY LOTHARIO.

Here is the account of a " Platonic " swindle on the part of a lady for which one can hardly help feeling a sort of sneaking sympathy. The story suggests a telling scene for a farce. We suppress the names of the actors, and lay the venue in a wellknown colonial town. On the one side we have a young woman of prepossessing appearance, whose husband is temporarily absent from his home, and on the other a middle-aged gentleman, holding an exalted position in affairs connected with the "Church and State." The stray glances of the bewitched damsel and her marvellous beauty caused a strange palpitation in the bosom of this highly decorous bachelor. Even in this fast-paced age there is nothing remarkable in this situation. But curb your feverish anxiety, fentle reader, there is both pathos and athos in the story. Glances led to nods, thence to hat raising, and an evening's visit to the dovecot occupied by the charmer. In delirious ecstacy the bachelor sat talking of " what might have been," till, with a start, the lady discovered lhat it was past midnight. How time does fly sometimes. The servants of the household, it was discovered, had retired, prcprtrly concluding that their mistress wasf alone. Here was a dilemma ! To be seen leaving the house at such an hour might coniproruise the fair lame of the lady. "What was to be done ? Happy thought. The French window led on to the verandah, thence to the garden and iron railings. No sooner conceived than executed, and he trudged home the happiest of mortals. Sly oil fox. Next day's post brought him a letter. How woll he knew the angular writing. More delirious ecstacy. But this exultation was short-lived. The message was couched in the most fear-inspired sentences possible to conceive. During the night a thief had stolen a large sum of money which her husband had left for her safe-keeping in her bedroom. Horrors accumulate. The worst has to be told. The policeman to whom she had reported the robbery had declared that he could lay his hand on the culprit at any moment, as he had seen him leave the house by the window. The constable further stated that he would have made the arrest, but he had identified the party, and felt sure he could always find him if he was " wanted." What should she do under these dreadful circumstances ? Her husband was so unreasonable. He would put the worst possible construction on everything. There would be a horrid exposure—murder, a divorce, blood, a scandal! The bache'of interviewed his solicitor, the result being that he sent the lady the amount of money—a large sum —of which the house had been robbed. The husband knows nothing about the robbery, and the bachelor no longer knows the lady. Such is the ingratitude of some men.—Exchange.