PASSIONATE LETTERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 9669, 16 April 1923, Page 3

PASSIONATE LETTERS.

FORMER BULLETIN WRITER.

| CITED IN?! DIVORCE COURT, j LUND ON, Feb. 7. ' The I i rce Court has begun r;s' busy time .or the year and ..i ■ tme of the cases first heard, a lady,, formerly a well-known journalist in Australia, appears as the cause for the divorce proceedings. Lady Dougli- . ty, formerly Miss Eugenia Bertuance j Stone of Melbourne, woman corres- ' pondent for the Sydney Bulletin, ' married the late Sir George Doughty, Mil 5 ., of Grimsby, and she has been for some years a widow. Mrs Kath- , leen Tickler; of Ealing, was yesterday 1 granted a decree nisi for the dissolui tion of her marriage with Mr Arthur : Tickler on the grounds of his cruelty ; and misconduct with Lady Doughty. | The case is extraordinary for the pas- | sionate letters which were produced as evidence by the wronged wife, for none of the parties in the action can he said to be at all in their first youth. Mr Patrick Hastings, K.C., for Mrs

Tickler, said that the parties were married in 1907 ' and there were four children. The charges of cruelty and misconduct began at the end of 1920, when the husband formed an attachment for Lady 'Doughty.'" The association went on ceaselessly,

the infatuation of the husband becoming very pronounced. There was a series of remarkable letters between the husband and Lady Doughty, discovered by Mrs TicklSr. * The first, from Lady Doughty, was dated August 9, 1920, and stated: To think that again we shall see each other and again shall kiss! The

’phone number is. Hawarden 37. Ring up any morning when you get the chance at about 9.30 or 10 o’clock, and say it is my butler. There’s a garage right next to us, where we can ’phono in safety. Oh! I wonder would you find me tired-looking and miserable to-day. You would.—Your dejected Nono. Counsel said that he would show that the husband and Lady Doughty were practising extraordinary deception. When Mrs Tickler found the letters, she went to see 'Lady Doughty to try to persuade her to leave her husband *done.. In June, 1921, there were uWo letters by Lady Doughty. One of them was to the wife, and was dated June 9, 1921, reading:— Dear Mrs Tickler, —Depend upon it, I shall do everything in my power to make him see fairness and reason. I keep telling him you love him. That he did not and does not believe. Why? Oh, he is difficult. But, if all else fails, I shall go away to New York or Buenos Aires, somewhere out of reach of even his letters.

I have argued, pleaded, coaxed him to see how happy he can be, since you are prepared to do everything to please and humor him in life, but he does not believe it. ... T am weary and tired of arguing. It may end by quarrelling, which might end matters better than anything else. * I. am certain I shall yet make him see fairness and your sincerity and love. 1 shall never go back on your trust in me. Yours truly, Eugenia Doughty. The other letter of Lady Doughty was to Mr Tickler, on June 10, 1921, the next day to that on which she wrote to the wife—and read :

Darling,—What glowing words you write me! Sparks flying upwards from the great fire of our love. Not sparks, really, but flames that leap and light up the whole of my being. Oh what a love! So wonderful, so beautiful, but so cruel in its needs and its tormenting fangs. .... Give me every thought, my darling. Come quickly and lay your heart on mine. . . . Come soon, soon to your adoring, restless Nono. Mr Hastings added that he would show that, while the husband was away in the Riviera, telling his wife lies as to where he was going, Mrs Tickler found two tickets for the Casino at Monte Carlo bearing his bandwriting.

j When the wife found the letters and ; bad been to see Lady Doughty to ' plead with her to leave her husband j alone, the husband went into Mrs ! Tickler’s bedroom, took a revolver I from his dresing case, and threatened | to shoot her. j Mrs Tickler said that she married ! on May 16, 1907, at the parish church iof Chiswick, and there were- four children. Her husband was the son ’ of a jam manufacturer.

| Until Lady Doughty came into her j husband’s life they were very happy J- together. The change came about the j year 1919, whfen the association with j Lady Doughty began. She identified ! Lady Doughty’s handwriting in the j letters from which counsel had read. : Asked as to her husband’s manner ! towards her, she said that he spent ! half Ins life with Lady Doughty and j half with her. ] Coming to the revolver incident, ! Mrs Tickler said that she was in her room ‘with her' child aged thirteen, and her husband said he understood that she had been to see Lady Dough-

ty, and observed that he did not see what good was coming by that, as it would mean the breaking, up of the i home. j , He also said that he would never j leave Lady Doughty. , He raised his ' voice terribly, took the revolver, and | said lie thought the best thing to do | was to shoot her and then himself. I Mrs Tickler added that there was i another occasion when her husband I threatened to shoot her, because she j refused to return to him the letters ! that she had found, j Mr Hastings referred to another ! letter which was written by Lady Doughty to the husband. This con- ;■ tained the following passages:— j May 4, 1921. My Precious Love, —Why is there ■ ever’ a cloud in the divine sky of our 1 glorious devotion ? . . . . Dearest, we love in a way no one could measure l or weigh or remotely realise. You are ' sunlight to my heart. You aro the heaven of my dream. You are the ; star to which I hitch my waggon. . . . j Let us live for each other’s good | and each other’s heaven on earth . . .

To love, is to touch the stars and reach a heaven never pictured by poet or painter. The judge said that he was not prepared to find that a mere booking at hotels was proof of misconduct. He knew of cases where the court had been deliberately deceived, and he had determined to have the matters proved. In this particular case there were, of course, the letters. Counsel said he relied on the letters.

The Judge: You have nothing else. You have the entry in the register, together with the letters! The fact that two people take consecutive tickets for Monte Carlo cannot he taken as evidence of misconduct. I clo not think the letters can be read without arriving at the conclusion that the husband has committed misconduct. 1 grant the petitioner a decree nisi and costs and the custody of the children.