"BOOK OF LOVE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 7

"BOOK OF LOVE."

REMARKABLE LETTER.

SYDNEY DIVORCE CASE.

WOMAN'S PRISE REAWAKENS. (Special—By Alp Mail.) SYDNEY, July 3. A remarkable letter, written by a woman to another woman's husband, was produced in the Divorce Court in a suit in which a Moree solicitor was! alleged to have left his wife at home and gone off on a love cruise to Fiji with another young woman of the town. Mrs. Ellen Annie Cory, 33, now resident at Neutral Bay, Sydney, where her family live, sought a divorcc from her husband, Gilbert Ernest Cory, 34, solicitor, of Moree, on the ground of his adultery with Alice Campbell,- of East Moree, on an ocean cruise in 1036.

The husband was 25 and the bride 24, when they were married at North Sydney in February, 1931.

In September, 1935, Mrs. Cory said, her husband told her he had resigned from the Moree firm and was going to Sydney to practise his profession thereShe was told something by a friend and accused her husband of being short of his accounts and also of having been unfaithful to her. He admitted the financial allegation, but denied that he had been carrying on with another woman. Later she ascertained that he was in camp at Ingleburn. From there he sent her the following letter:— ! "Dear 'Muff, —I expect to be sailing quite soon and before going I think I [should tell you that I went away to Fiji on that cruise on the Katoomba, and while away I was unfaithful to you. That was not an isolated occasion, and the state of affairs continued for a long while afterwards with the one party. You know that I would like you to know this, but, of course, I cannot divulge the name of the girl under any circumstances. I "As & matter of fact, Muff, there I [were other occasions betides the trip.

to Fiji, but I don't think there is any necessity for me to give details of them. Without wishing to make excuses, you may realise that my being away from home so often did not make matters easier for me in the way of being faithful. . . . After all, I was away from you on my business about half of the year. Cheerio and good luck, Muff. I hope you can make a fresh start, as I have to. —Yours sincerely, Peter."

"Straight line Again." Mrs. Cory said she later received a bundle of letters, among which was the following letter, signed "Babe Campbell," to her husband:—

"Gilbert, dear: As the last of your long trips is over, so must I you this. You must not think I am writing in a fit of petulance. I find it much easier to express my eel f this way than it would be to tell you. In the last few months I hope my love has made you happy and am glad my letters . . . have helped you along. I want to become a straight line again, Gilbert, instead of one of a triangle. You see. my dear, my long slumbering pride has awakened at last. I went into a trance over three years ago, and though it came to life ... I have managed (although not always successfully) to keep it in check, it will now no longer be denied. Pleaee try to understand, and do not ask me to see yoti and talk this over. It would do no good . . . Not only my pride dictates this, but my reason and self-respect. It is almost throe years since I gave myself to you. Quite long enough for you to decide which you prefer to give— respect to one woman or love to another. You see I am putting myself in the last position. You have told me you love me. and it is 011 that assumption that I write this letter. '"If you do not love me. then this will only amuse you. However, still assuming the foregoing, I proceed: When we first started I was amused and regarded the matter more in the light of a battle of wits—not souls. As a matter of fact, I thought you were a trifle audacious and foolishly thought myself capable of teaching you the leseon you so badly needed. I would have succecded if my pride had not decided to take unto itself a long rest. And then Fate, or shall 11 say Circumstance, played into your hands. You became ill aod I found that I was fond of you, and decided, as you wanted me, you could have me.

| "All tlis time it did not enter mv dull brain that-I should regard your wife as anything more than t sister to you. And it did not dawn on me till one night you took me to your home, during her absence. I suddenly had a perspective on the matter. it was theu that I became aware of the triangular aspect. You said you did not live with her as man and wife. If that is so, your home life is unnatural and hypocriticaL If it is not so, then the love we babble *lo cach other is a farce. Only you know which is true. But I know this: you continue to live with her and, for all I know, intend so to continue.

"We Met Too Late." "Which ever way it goes, somebody gets the knock, if it is mo, I don't inind, because we met too late. And so. rather than have you tell me that your respect for your wife is paramount to your love for me, I withdraw—leaving you both to form parallel lines (or what you will) with your two sides of the triangle. For my own part, I want to pick up my old ideals and my discarded mantle of honesty and honour, end never again let them go.

"After you have read this I don't want you even to think about me. I have made my decision, and whether you like it or not, you are to abide by it. Do not for one moment think I am, or will be, unhappy. As for regrets, I have only two. The first, I have three lives to answer for on the Day of Judgment, Tbe second, that you had occasion to request me to act like a "fishwife.' I will never be able to excuse my abominable conduct and lamentable lack of breeding. I let down, but. as I said, pride slumbered peacefully, until I -aw that jenchanting picture of your wife standing I within the half-circle of your arm. It [she had any sense she would keep ther<\

*'I close the book of love and hope, in time, we may open the more enduring one of friendship. The book is interesting and instructive. I would rather have had you as a reading companion than [anyone else on earth. I have tried ihonestly to show you tbe reason for our [break —which is absolutely final.—Your» truly. Babe Campbell.

I "P..S.—This has not been to j write. I am relying or you to understand, and with that understanding, to 'close the book." | Mi*. Cory was granted a decree