RE-WOOING A DIVORCED WIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 202, 26 August 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

RE-WOOING A DIVORCED WIFE.

AN INTERESTING ROMANCE OF YANKEE LAND. . A more than usually interesting case of a diA^oreed pair coming together again has been lately attracting attention in New York. Some few years ago a Captain De la Mar, a middle-aged multi-millionaire, married a Miss Nellie Virginia Sands, who although one of the prettiest girls in America was only the daughter of a chemist in very moderate circumstances. During tho year succeeding the marriage they were heard of in Mexico and the Western States, in Egypt, Italy, and England, always surrounded by the same luxury, and, what was considered still more remarkable, never separated for an instant. Captain De la Mar's jealousy became notorious. His devotion to his wife was so unreasoning that he would not permit another man to look at her, much less to talk with her.

Finally they settled in Paris, Avhere they lived in a magnificent apartment at 86 Avenue Niel. Meanwhile the social position of the De la Mars rose with such rapid bounds that she was at liberty, if she wished, to snub the people who had once refused to welcome her.

A little daughter was born, Avho resembled her mother wonderfully, and who was the delight of both Mr and Mrs De la Mar. The family relations were apparently a model of domestic happiness.

Finally the violent jealousy which had always characterised Captain De la Mar's conduct as a husband exploded from contact with what he considered a proof of his wife's unfaithfulness.

He found in her possession, he said, letters from a New York business man. He allowed no opportunity for explanation, but took the little girl and abandoned his wife; A little more than a year ago he obtained a divorce from her in a Paris' court, and society thought it had seen an end of the De la Mars and their romance.

Mrs De la Mar wandered back to America. While in the West she met a woman friend who ha*d long known both the beautiful young wife and her divorced husband. To her Mrs De la Mar poured out the story of her innocence and her undeserved misfortune.

This friend saw fit to write to Captain De la Mar a letter assuring him that the woman who had been his wife was misunderstood and suffering, and inconsolable for the loss of her baby girl. The old captain replied promptly and courteously, referring to Mrs De la Mar in the most gentle and affectionate terms.

Mrs De la Mar went back to Paris. Her husband had not permitted her to see her child since he abandoned her. One day, walking alone in the Champs Elysees, she met him leading his baby daughter by the hand. The child recognised her mother in a moment, and, with a shout of delight, ran and threw her tiny arms about her. The old captain was deeply affected. The pathetic little scene melted what remained of his wrath. And, he was not yet proof against the beauty that had once so thoroughly captivated him

Next day the strange courtship began. The captain sent the baby with her nurse to call upon her mother. On the next day he sent flowers. On the third day he called. There were explanations, apologies, reconciliations, and on the part of the eccen. trie suitor, so Paris says, pleadings for reunion.

Outsiders watched these developments curiously. "Madame weakens," they said. "Her fierce husband will have his way. She has been true to the jealous old man all the time,"

Which Avas true. Every nian who ever met Nellie Sands admired her. Many ot them loved her and showed it.

But the affection that she had given as a girl to the rough, brusque, unlettered miner was never supplanted.

The little girl Is now with her mother, and the captain has apartments directly opposite. Both are supposed to know their minds so well that there Is no reason for waiting, and a ceremony to reunite this TOMfU-trled family may occur very shortly.