TRAGIC ROMANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 248, 16 October 1920, Page 19

TRAGIC ROMANCE.

FOUND LIFE EMPTY WITHOUT HUMBLE SWEETHEART. That there is abundant truth In the old maxim: •The course of true love never runs smooth, 1, lias lieen .brought home iv vivid fashion to uvo young Italian lovers, whose serret romance has ended in tragedy. It was a case of the rich suitor, the girl of humble station ami forbidding parents, and a sensation has been caused by tUe sad ending of the affair. The young swain was a highly-placed official in the Ministry of Pensions named Uuiseppe Gradinetti. A member of the UMst elegant clubs iv Rome, where he was highly respected, the young officer for some time past had been completely enamoured of Signnrlnu Maria Labroca, a beautiful Italian girl, living in a poor quarter of Home. I Maria returned the officer's love, ami I there begau nn idyll which gained in ' strength during long walks in the environs !>f the capital. They became engaged, but the officer hesitated to inform his people because he feared their opposition to the marriage. The two continued to meet clandestinely until one day the girl's mother learned of the secret engagement, and. doubting the intentions of the highly- placed official towards so obviously a poor girl, she forbade lier daughter to see her lover again. i A promise was given, but it was soon I broken, and the mother was again informed [of Maria's long secret walks with her lover. Determined to end what she described as "a dishonest intrigue." she locked her daughter in the house. Maria implored her mother to have faith in her lover, but. realising her mother's obduracy, anil that it would be impossible to gain her consent, Maria wrete to Signor Gradinetti begging him not u> try and seiner again. 1 Grndinetti refused the request, and in his I attempts to see Maria he even forced an entry into her bouse. P.ut', at last, convinced of the impossibility of overcoming the opposition of "his own parents and the prejudice against him of Maria's mother. Gradinetti with inexpressible sadness I wrote, "Why live? There is nothing left." Then, in his rooms, afier addressing letters to "The Mother of Maria," to his father, to.n friend, and to "Mia Maria," be shot himself as an "everlasting protest against parental interference."