WANE OF AFFECTION

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 184, 6 August 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

WANE OF AFFECTION

TWO WARNINGS TO SUSCEPTIBLE

SWAINS

' 'It is true I have met girls and girls, but remember; my darling, you are the only one I have ever truly loved,'

So wrote Mr Richard Lewis Webster, an electrical engineer, of Devonshirestreet, Newington-causeway, to his inamorata, Miss Eva Crouch, a damsel of twenty summers, living in Skipton-streee, London Road, Southvark.

The letter was written in apparently an outburst of gratitude to "the young lady for having accepted his offer of marriage; for Mr Webster, it seems; had visited the Camberwell Music Hail, Whero Miss Crouch was playing a leading part in Charles Godfrey's sketch, 'Inkerman,' and fell on the battlefield oi love. He waited for the charming young actress at the stage door for Eeveral nights, and eventually secured art introduction, which led speedily to ail engagement. :I have met girls, of course,' continued Mr Webster in the letter from which we have quoted, 'and have been obliged to do the amiable to them, but when they have said "Good-night" at our house and elsewhere they have passed ENTIRELY OUT OF MY MIND.' Unfortunately, in spi.to of these protestations, Miss Crouch appears to have joined the mental procession and to have also passed out of the mind of her amorous lover. She sought to remind him of the little episode of their engagement by bringing an action against him for breach of promise, and the jury at the London Sheriff's Court awarde £20 damages against Mr Webster for not fulfilling his engagement after 'doing the amiable.' Miss Maud Marian Carter, twenttfseven, a dressmaker, living in Gloucester, made the acquaintance several years ago of William Evans, a butcher's assistant, who went to lodge with her parents, and two years' later became engaged to the young lady, after she and her mother had nursed him through' a dangerous illness.

Afterwards, however, he left her for other lodgings, and eventually -came to London, the separation having a disastrous effect on his love and gratitude. He even went so far as to repudiate the engagement,' and In a letter to Miss Carter he said, 'She was mistaken—if she thought she could frighten money out of him.' ,

This, naturally, put Miss Carter on her mettle, and she placed the matter, in the hands of her solicitors. Result, £50 damages at Gloucester Sheriff's Court.