WIFE'S DEVOTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 11

WIFE'S DEVOTION.

FOLLOWS CONVICT HUSBAND TO DEVIL'S ISLAND. ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY OF FRENCH GIRL. "WHITHER THOU GOEST I WILL GO." (By MARCIA NARDI.) "Whither thou goest I will go. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried." These immortal words that have been resurrected again and again in the heart of all true love are now once more kindled to living flame by the great sacrifice of beautiful Aliee "Mestorino, who will leave Paris to live near dreaded Devil's Island, to which her husband has been sentenced for life because lie killed another man in the heat of anger. During the.trial, which was one of the most sensational that the Parisian courts have known, she tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison, and for four days lingered between life and death. Upon regaining consciousness she cried, "My husband is not an assassin. He had a quarrel, and after being insulted, he lost his reason. Steps must and shall be taken to. obtain a revision of his case; but in the meantime I shall follow him, and be as near as I can to the scenes of that awful torture which no man can stand without going morally and physically to pieces." And so, well aware of the terrible dangers that lurk in the deatli jungles of French Guiana, the young and lovely the condemned man will live on the perilous coast opposite the penal island. . . perhaps for the rest of her life. Tlie whole story of the brave French ■ gii I's love for the handsome young Italian, who must now face ;;, living deatli more terrible than death itself could be, is more melodramatic than fiction. When she first met him in her 17th year her well-to-do parents wanted her to wed a man of equal financial standing, and Charles Mestorino was just starting his career as a designer of jewellery. But Alice ran away with him and was very happy. Twice Decorated for Bravery. When the war came, and young Mes- | torino's own country was drawn into it, lie enlisted, served as an airman under D'Anmmzio, and was twice decorated for bravery. Then oiii! day Alice received the sad news t'.iat her husband's 'plane had been seen plunging to earth inside the enemy's lines, and that he was given up for dead. It was as if the sun had gone out of the sky for ever, and her broken heart would not mend. But almost at the same time her parents lost their fortune, and their dependence on their eldest daughter made it necessary for her to go on living in order to support them. In one of the famous Parisian dressmaking establishments she took a job as a mannequin, hoping that work would help her to forget. W T hen her beauty attracted the attention of Miguel Escobar, a millionaire South American merchant, who asked her to marry him, she felt that for the sake of her parents it wa.s her duty to accept, but the great pang that seized her soul.as she decided.to do this made her realise that■'her heart was buried in the grave with Charles, and that she would never forget. "I will marry you, Miguel," she said frankly, "but my heart .... forgive me . . . .my heart is dead." A magnificent wedding took place. The merchant settled a life pension on his wife and on her parents. Though he knew that Alice could -never give herself to him completely. He worshipped the very ground she walked on and sjiared no expense in lavishing luxuries upon her. Alice herself, however, looked sadly at her costly gowns and priceless jewels, and often there were tears in her eyes. Sometimes she wondered if by chance it could i)e possible that Charles were still alive. Then one night in a cafe she met him and for the first time in months ceased to be a living corpse. • "My darling," she cried, as he gathered her in his arms a 6 of old. "How marvellous it is that fate has brought you back to me."

L —o >.«~—a—«—o—o— «—o—— Then she told Miguel that he must let her go to the one and only man she had ever loved or ever would love as long as she lived. The merchant nearly collapsed iuider the eliock. But he gave Alice her freedom and sorrowfully went back to his own country. Tragic Anger. Alice had her life-penbion, and her parents were also well provided for; so she helped Charles to open a wholesale jewellery business and racy built a little home in the suburbs of Paris, where they took Alice's younger sister, Paulette, to live with them. But* with the coining of Paulette began the great tragedy that has now brought a fate worse than death to the two lovere, and which has sent j the little sister herself to prison for two j years. j ' Paulette, a devoted and good girl, helped her brother-in-law in the shop. While working there she attracted the attention of Gaston Trupheme, an unscrupulous diamond broker. Both Alice and Charles knew that Trupheme was married and that he was making his businees dealings with Charles only as an excuse to pursue Paulette. Then one night Alice sat up anxiously waiting for her husband to come home. He had never before been late, and her anxiety reached an unbearable pitch when she heard him running his car into the garage and locking the door. He looked pale and haggard as he came into the house, and without eating went straight to bed. Restlessly he too&ed about, begging Alice never to leave kirn no matter what happened. Alice did not know that the body of Gaston Trupheme wae in Charles' motorcar in the garage behind their house, and, vainly begging him to tell her the reason for his sudden misery, she nursed him tenderly until he fell asleep. Before day- j break he jumped up from his bed again, and, etill refusing to take any food, rushed out of the house and sped off in the car once more. After Mestorino'e crime was discovered it came out that he had owed Trupheme 35,000 francs for a cut diamond and cOuld not pay. When Trupheme called at the shop to collect the money owing to him he was in an irritable mood because Mestorino had interfered with his attentions to Paulette. Charles was also in an irritable mood because he had diecovered the diamond which the broker it and was not worth the 35,000 francs had declared to be perfect had a flaw in which he had promised to pay for it. The two men argued and fought. Trupheme called Meetorino a vile name when accused of trying to pass off an imperfect diamond as a flawless one. Insulted and with hie hot Italian blood inflamed by anger, Mestorino picked up a short steel rod known as a ring gauge and struck the broker, who fell to the 'floor just as four of Mestorino'e employees rushed into the office. All of them, including Paulette, had always disliked Trupheme, and, feeling sorry for their employer, helped him to place the dead man's body in a sack so that he could take it into the woods. All the workmen swore they would never betray Mestorino, but they "squealed." Paulette must spend two years in gaol, while Alice follows her husband to the scenes of lifelong torture on Devil's Island, those lone rocks in the lies Du Salut, from which few men have returned alive.—(Anglo-American N.S. Copyright.)