on, who had put on a flowing, white dress, and who wore a wax mask,
which bore striking resemblance to his mother, as the son declared.

When the case was heard, it was proved that the mask had been very
skillfully made from a portrait of the deceased woman. The Government
gave orders that the matter should be investigated as secretly as
possible, and left the punishment of Father K---- to the spiritual
authorities, which was a matter of course, at a time when priests were
outside the jurisdiction of the Civil Authorities; and it is needless to
say that he was very comfortable during his imprisonment, in a monastery
in a part of the country which abounded with game and trout.

The only valuable result of the amusing ghost story was, that it brought
about a reconciliation between father and son, and the former, as a
matter of fact, felt such deep respect for priests and their ghosts in
consequence of the apparition, that a short time after his wife had left
purgatory for the last time, in order to talk with him, he turned
_Protestant_.

CRASH

Love is stronger than death, and consequently also, than the greatest
crash.

A young, and by no means bad-looking son of Palestine, and one of the
barons of the Almanac of the _Ghetto_, who had left the field covered
with wounds in the last general engagement on the Stock Exchange, used
to go very frequently to the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, in
order to divert his thoughts, and to console himself amidst the varied
scenes, and the numerous objects of attraction there. One day he met a
newly married couple in the Russian section, who had a very old coat of
arms, but on the other hand, a very modest income.

This latter circumstance had frequently emboldened the stockbroker to
make secret overtures to the delightful little lady; overtures which
might have fascinated certain Viennese actresses, but which were sure to
insult a respectable woman. The baroness, whose name appeared in the
_Almanack de Gotha_, therefore felt something very like hatred for the
man from the _Ghetto_, and for a long time her pretty little head had
been full of various plans of revenge.

The stockbroker, who was really, and even passionately in love with her,
got close to her in the Exhibition buildings, which he could do all the
more easily, since the little woman's husband had taken to flight,
foreseeing mischief, as soon as she went up to the show-case of a
Russian fur dealer, b