A BRIEF ROMANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2586, 21 August 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

A BRIEF ROMANCE.

SEQUEL TO THE DIVORCE OF MME. MELBA’S SON. An echo of the short-lived romance of a boy and girl marriage was heardin the London Divorce Court, when Sir. John Bigham granted leave of substitute service in reference to the marriage settlements in the divorce proceedings brought by Mrs. Ruby Armstrong against her husband Mr. Nesbit Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong, who is now in India, is the only son of Mme. Melba, the prima donna. He married Phoebe Georgina Frances Ruby, the only child of Colonel and Mrs Jocelyn Otway, of Park Lane. She was only 18 and he a handsome boy of 21. The marriage took place at St. George’s, Hanover Square, in 1906. After the ceremony the young couple went to America, and here the girl-wife found early disillusion. Mr. Armstrong gave way to dreadful fits of temper and outbursts of bad. language. In Texas early in 1907 he insulted his wife at a ranche in the presence of a number of cowboys, and when she remonstrated lie flung her down injuring her head against a bar of iron. They returned to England, and during a tour on the south coast Mr. Armstrong pushed his wife into the sea. Further violent scenes took place in the autumn of the same year in Australia, in; spite of the intervention; of Mme. Melba' herself, and the series of sad adventures came to an end in London, when Mr. Armstrong was discovered hiding under a lady’s bed at the Hotel Metropole. With the aid of a walking-stick the irate husband flung him from the room. Mrs. Armstrong instituted divorce proceedings, and a decree nisi was pronounced and subsequently made. absol> ute. v '