GAMBETTA'S LOVE STORY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2993, 28 January 1881, Page 4

GAMBETTA'S LOVE STORY.

Gambetta i 3 a bachelor, but ho has not lived so long without having at least contemplated marriage. The story of his engagement to an heiress in Western Franc?, and its sudden breaking off, gives us a fresh glimpse of his character. Prom the time of his leaving his huuiblo home at Cahors, till his rise to the highest rank of public personagos, Gambetta lived with a faithful, loving, devoted aunt, who had followed him to Paiis, and who made, everywhere he went, a pleasant homo for him. She was at once his maid-of-all-work and his congenial companion, and he was deeply attached to her as she to hira. His engagement to a handsome and accomplished girl, with a portion of seven millions, was a shock to the good aunt, but she yielded gracefully to the inevitable. When the arrangements for the marriage were being discussed, however, the young lady took it into her head to make it a condition of the union that the aunt should be excluded from the new establishment. She was scarcely elegant enough to adorn gilded salons. Gambetta explained how muoh his aunt had been to him ; the rich beauty was only tno more obdurate. Gambetta took up his hat and made a profound bow. " Adieu," he said ; "we were not made to understand each other." And the marriage was put off for ever.