NOT SOUL MATES

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 11

NOT SOUL MATES

A MARRIAGE ILL BEGUNPRESENTS FROM OTHER LADIES. J. B. Lowthcr, who, according to counsel, “considered himself too spiritual toi his wife,” told a dramatic story m the London Divorce'Court of being told by his father that ho must marry his fiancee 01 leave the paternal home. This incident, said Lowthcr, occurred at the house of his father, Colonel Lowther, of Shrigley Hall, near Buxton, a few days before the wedding, when the son had just brought his bride-to-be Irom America. ~ .. Describing the scene, Lowthcr said, when he told bus father that he did nob intend to marry, the colonel retorted, an“\tou big cad; you big ass; cannot you see that it is impossible? The wedding is announced.” .... , ~ , His father added: “And it shall stay so. You brought this girl here as a bride. Ge? diit of the room. Ido nob want you "any longer. If you don t many her vou leave my home.” . “ And this woman, to save you, married you a few days after?” asked bir Edward Marshall. Hall, K.G., counsel for tho wife. “ I do not think that is the way to put it,” replied Lowthcr. _ . They were married, said witness, at _bt. Mathias’s Church, Earl’s Court, a lew days later. Thvra Lowther, the wife, sought the dissolution of tho marriage on the ground of statutory desertion and the alleged misconduct of her husband with Mi's Annie Gertrude Roxburgh, aged sixty-five. Lowthcr, resuming his evidence, denied tho charge of misconduct. When he occupied tho furnished house at Rochester terrace, Buxton, he said, Mrs Roxburgh was there. Ho was teaching singing, and she looked after the household duties and wrote his letters. His mother had lunched with him at Rochester terrace. Replying to Sir Edward Marshall Hall, in cross-examination, Lowthcr said he was thirty. When he met his wife and pmposed marriage ho was in love with her. But he was not in lovo with her now. When she came to London before the marriage witness realised that they had nothing in common. Counsel: About what was tho date?— About a fortnight or so before I married. Did Mrs Roxburgh make you a present of a grand piano?—No. Who gave it (o you?—A friend who lived near—Mrs Barlow. Did a lady give yon a fur coat?—Yes; Mrs Barlow. Are you in (he habit of receiving presents from ladies older than yourself?—l should not call it a. habit. Mrs Roxburgh gave you a motor car?— Yes. How much did you contribute towards tho car?—£so. After your marriage did you make certain disclosures to your wife about your past?—Not that I know of. Sir Edward road a long letter written by Lowther to his wife on October 18, 11)19 (shortly before the marriage) as follows : “ You have more than filled my soul with love of you, which love is expressed only and entirely in a deep and fervent desire for your welfare and happiness. It is not that I do nob love you and reverence yon, for all your beauty and character, and they have awakened in me tho deepest love- a. man can give a, woman, . . . but because this intense spiritual love is not expressed outwardly I feel that often I appear cold and unsympathetic. “ I am snro this will cause misunderstanding. I begin to realise that, lam not your soul mate. . . . “ My beloved one, we arc not children, you and I, but great individuals, ranged only on one side, of right and (.ruth, and both too great to be weak or fearful, Ws are profoundly intent on fulfilling our destinies. “ If you feel I am right, and vou feel in your heart it is best for your‘ welfare, I want you to know that you arc released from any obligation to stay with me. My happiness will be to let you go and find, if you can, your soul’s desire, . . Sir Edward said tho. letter was written fi\o days after witness said' he had ceased to love his wife. Lowther said !he dad not, perhaps, answer the question rightly. Ho did care for her, but ho did not want to hamper her. Ho considered her happiness and her freedom. His wife wired a reply to his letter: “ Perfect understanding. Want you to feel us happy as I do.” Sir Edward asked whether a reference to a drowning man in one of tho letters meant that lie was himself “drowning,” and that a respectable marriage was to save him. Witness denied the suggestion. On October £O, said counsel, witness wrote bis wifo a. loiter beginning : “My own beloved, I am thinking of you very much with all my love. Darling of mine, I know that my words were true, that I can he far more to you as a devoted friend than your husband. It is nob that Ido not lovo you. . . . You have awakened in mo spiritual lovo and spirituality beyond physical expression. That is the ideal I have striven for. Woman stands for spirituality, the spiritual idea, and, as such, she is to ho understood.” Sir Edward: I suggest it was a hypocritical letter of the worst possible kind? —lt was not. * Counsel read another long letter from Lowther, and suggested that he was struggling between two desires—to tell his wife the truth before he married her, or to represent to her what he was not. Lowther denied a suggestion that his ■wife came into the room and found him on tho sofa with two women friends with their arms around his neck, kissing him. He did not use cosmetic, and did not wear a wig, only a toupc. His wife, he said, asked him if she could have a lover, and he said he did not mind. He regarded his relations with Mrs Roxburgh ns purely platonic, and he had only kissed her half a dozen times. Mrs Roxburgh, who denied tho wife’s charge of misconduct, said she had small private means, and lived in hoardinghouses. She was married, but separated from her husband for twenty-six years. Colonel Lowther said ho always understood his am and Mrs Roxburgh were friends. Other evidence was given that there was nothing in tho conduct of Lowther and Mrs Roxburgh at Buxton that excited suspicion. The jury retired for an hour and aquarter, and then said they were unable to agree. Hia Lordship, having addressed them again, the jury found that no misconduct had been committed, and the petition was dismissed, the intervener being dismissed from the suit with costs.