rtions of countenance, and a certain amount of winking and
blinking, was sufficiently recovered to take a huge pinch of snuff, and
ascend the stairs to a private room, with her daughter and son-in-law
for supporters, and half a score waiters and chamber-maids, whom her
hysterical symptoms had assembled, by way of a tail. Seeing her so well
guarded, I thought it unnecessary to add to the escort. As she left the
room, there was a clatter of hoofs outside, and looking through the
window, I saw the coroneted berline whirled rapidly away by four
vigorous posters. Just then the dinner-bell rang, and the obsequious
head-waiter, who with profound bows had assisted at the departure of the
travellers, bustled into the room.

"Who is the gentleman who has just left?" I inquired.

"His Excellency, Count J----," replied the man. It was the name of a
Hungarian nobleman of great wealth, and of reputation almost European
as one of the most fashionable and successful Lotharios of the
dissipated Austrian capital.

"And his companion?"

"The celebrated actress, Fraulein Sendel."

Had the cunning but unlucky Van Haubitz been a regular reader of the
_Theater Zeitung_, or Journal of the Theatres, he would have seen, in
the ensuing number to that whence he derived his information respecting
Mademoiselle Sendel's confirmed popularity and advantageous engagement
the following short but important paragraph:--

"Erratum.--In our yesterday's impression an error occurred, arising from
a similarity of names. It is Fraulein _Ameline_ Sendel who has concluded
with the Vienna theatre, an engagement equally advantageous to herself
and the manager. Her elder sister, Fraulein _Emilie_, continues the
engagement she has already held for two seasons, as a supernumerary
_soubrette_. The amount stated yesterday as her salary would still be
correct, with the abstraction of a zero. Talent does not always run in
families."

This good-natured paragraph, evidently from the pen of a sulky
sub-editor, smarting under a lashing for his blunder of the preceding
day, did not come to my knowledge till some time afterwards, so that the
waiter's reply to my question concerning Count J----'s travelling
companion perplexed me greatly, and plunged me into an ocean of
conjectures. In fact, my curiosity was so strongly roused, that instead
of availing myself of the absence of the Dutchman to escape from the
hotel, I sat down to dinner, resolved not to depart till I heard