LIKE A "MOVIE" STORY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 58, 5 September 1925, Page 6

LIKE A "MOVIE" STORY

"ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE'

IMAGINATIVE WIFE: DISILLU-

SIONED HUSBAND.

(si tiiMatktai-ttKiKh to thi rosr.>

AUCKLAND, This Day.

The latest romance of the peerage is a story in which a New Zealand woman, lately a resident of "Butterville,'' is the central figure. It is related by the '^Star" as follows:— The lady was born heiress 1 to vast estates in South Africa and one of the handsomest private fortunes in Britain, in addition to which she should have inherited one of- those rare titles which descend In the female as well as the male line, there was a ."wicked" uncle in the case, and as he wak the child's guardian he had ,no difficulty in getting her put out to nurse with a family well paid for their trouble. In the meantime, .of course, the uncle enjoyed the use of the family fortune. Uncle served in the late war, and was terribly wounded, in the neck. When he knew that his end was near, he sent for a padre and confessed to him how he had for years been robbing the child. He gave the padre fnil information, which was sent to the Public Trustee in New Zealand, and the missing heiress was traced to. "Butterville," where she was married "to a respectable tradesman. ■ ■

Through the Public Trustee, negotiations were opened up with the head of the family in England,. a person quite high up iii the• peerage. It seemed, that the family refused, to recognise the husband, who was *a colonial, and proposals were made that |he heiress should leave him and eventually divorce him, failing which . some arrangement could be conic to by which he would keep severely in the. background. This was not very cheerful news for the husband, but he felt he could trust his wife, and he did not fear the result of her interview with the family, for it.was arranged that she should go to England for that purpose. In the meantime, the Public Trustee had informed the lady that, she was to have an allowance, and forwarded her certain family heirlooms, such as diamond rings, pins, and a pearl necklace or two. • One or two of these trinkets were given by the lady to her husband as keepsakes. Although the husband; did riot actually see the money, he'was told that the Public Trustee had been instructed to make tie heiress an adequate allowance,; and- that funds were provided for her trip home. After the lady had left "Buttervillo," the husband told his employer Borne of the facts of,the case. Tlio employer had his suspicions, and while he. was loth to shake,the husband's confidence in his better half, felt bound to make some inquiries. These inquiries were made in Auckland, ,and the employer found that the alleged heiress had taken a, billet in the city under an assumed name in the culinary department of a city establishment. /.'..■ .'.-.'

Up to that moment the husband had placed the fullest., confidence in the fascinating story told by his wife. He insisted that she could not have invented , the whole,' thing, and he prdduoed a diamond tie pin as proof. A visit to a ideal jeweller revealed the. fact that the "heirloom" was a common nine-carat affair with a real glass "stone." That shook the husband's belief in the wonderful tale, and "Butterville," or that much of it as knew the story, have given up all hopes of welcoming back -with a coronet'on her head the sparkling lady they so recently farewelled ou the eve of a trip to England, "partly on pleasure and paitly. on business."