she had shown
herself now here, now there, in the mansion in Vienna, in a white dress
and making a noise like the wings of a bat, and bearing a striking
resemblance to the beautiful Countess.

CAUGHT

A young and charming lady, who was a member of the Viennese aristocracy,
went last summer, like young and charming ladies usually do, to a
fashionable Austrian watering place, Carlsbad, which is much frequented
by foreigners, without her husband.

As is usually the case in their rank of life, she had married from family
considerations and for money; and the short spell of _Love after
Marriage_ was not sufficient to take deep root, and after she had
satisfied family traditions and her husband's wishes by giving birth
to a son and heir, they both went their way; the young, handsome and
fascinating man to his clubs, the race-course, and behind the scenes at
the theaters, and his charming, coquettish wife to her box at the opera,
to the ice in winter, and to some fashionable watering place in the
summer.

On the present occasion she brought a young, very highly-connected Pole
with her from one of the latter resorts, who enjoyed all the rights and
the liberty of an avowed favorite, and who had to perform all the duties
of a slave.

As is usual in such cases, the lady rented a small house in one of the
suburbs of Vienna, had it beautifully furnished and received her lover
there. She was always dressed very attractively, sometimes as _La Belle
Helene_ in Offenbach's Opera, only rather more after the ancient Greek
fashion; another time as an Odalisque in the Sultan's harem, and another
time as a lighthearted Suabian girl, and so forth. In winter, however,
she grew tired of such meetings, and she wanted to have matters more
comfortable, so she took it into her head to receive her lover in her own
house. But how was it to be done? That, however, gave her no particular
difficulty, as is the case with every woman, when once she has made up
her mind to a thing, and after thinking it over for a day or two she went
to the next _rendez-vous_, with a fully prepared plan of war.

The Pole was one of those types of handsome men which are rare; he was
almost womanly in his delicate features, of the middle height, slim and
well-made, and he resembled a youthful Bacchus who might very easily be
made to pass for a Venus by the help of false locks; the more so as there
was not even the slightest down on his lips. The lady, therefo