"AN ODIOUS HYPOCRITE"

Evening Star, Issue 18532, 15 January 1924, Page 7

"AN ODIOUS HYPOCRITE"

DIVORCE COURT JUDGE’S SCATHING DESCRIPTION OF WIFE.

The case in which a barrister husband , complained that his wife had lampooned him in a magazine story which she had , written, entitled ' Lex Talionis,’ was coneluded before Mr Justice Hill in _ .tho Divorce'Court this week (says; the ‘Liverpool Weekly Post,’ of November 24). Tho barrister, Mr Edward St, Clair 1 Harnett, was resisting a petition for restitution of conjugal rights brought by his wife, Mrs Dorothy Grace Harnett, residing with her father, Colonel Waring, at Lisnacro, County Down, and at the close of Mrs Harnett’s case her petition was dismissed with costs, the judge describing her as “an odious hypocrite.” NEVER STRUCK HER. Cross-examined by Mr Mould, for the respondent, Mrs Harnett said that she never suggested that her husband had ever struck her. Have you ever threatened to divorce your husband?—An absolute invention; divorce was never mentioned. Did you threaten to break him financially?—That is a perfectly absurd question; it is untrue and childish. In reply to an affectionate letter from your husband, did you write to him; “Darling Lad, —You are a white man?” —1 was always trying to coax him, and any little praise delighted him, I was fighting for my marriage rights, and put in a few things to flatter him, as I wanted to gel him back again. What did you mean by a white man? I considered he was as white as ho could possibly be. VIEWS ON MURDER. His Lordship: I am not well np in modem slang. I do not know what the connotation of a white man is. The Witness: I meant a good sort. Mrs Harnett said tho character in * Lei Talionis ’ was entirely fictitious, and not her husband. His Lordship: I have rsa<j the story. It seems to me that the major is the only person who behaves in a respectable way and leads a respectable life. Ho appears to be tho only man against indiscriminate murder. I think the writer approves of indiscriminate murder. Mrs Harnett: Oh, no. His Lordship: The only man who besttated at all is tho lawyer major. His Lordship 1 Do you say your husband is untruthful?—No, I am of opinion that he handles the truth carelessly. It is a defect in some people, and w« ought to be sorry for them. Witness added that she was genuinely wishful of a reconciliation with her husband at the time she wrote her letters.

_ Mr Mould submitted that on the petitioner’s own case sincerity on her part for a desire to rotm to her husband was not established.

His Lordship: My personal impression is that the only sincere thing ahoni the woman is her dislike of her husband. But somebody may eay I am wrong. His Lordship said he accepted the view that the wife nad not made out her case, as she had not made out a sincere desire to return. He had seen the wife in the witness box and had heard her evidence, and had watched her demeanour closely. He had heard the answers which she gave, and noted the questions to which she did not give a direct answer, and he' had come to the conclusion that clearly there was no intention on her part to live with her husband on ordinary terms. SCATHING COMMENT. He was- confirmed in that view, he added, by the correspondence. Lx February, 1920, there was a reconciliation, entirely genuine on the part of the husband, but letters written by the wife to her parents at the time showed. her in the worst possible light. They showed her to have been acting a part, and to be, in fact, an odious hypocrite. He could find no reason to conclude that now she was other than she was then. Ho did not believe that she had any sincere desire to resume marital relations. What she wanted was a decree of restitution and not restitution itself. He therefore dismissed the petition. Mr Mould said that Major Harnett would make fair and reasonable provision for his wife.