MAY HALLETT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 122, 21 May 1909, Page 7

MAY HALLETT.

(By Frank Morton.)

May Hallet has been acquitted by a jury. I have nothing" to say as to that; indeed, I rather enjoyed the feeling of these Wellington tuft-hunt-ers being taken in by such an ordinary and unconvincing little adventuress. .It was said tabt the Hal-, lett girl, who was known at the time as Miss Campbell-Bannerman, was a niece of the deceased statesman of that name. A society that will swallow such an bbviously silly statement .^ill swallow anything. If Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had had a niece she might possibly have • been Miss Campbell, but she could not possibly have been Miss Campbell-Bannerman. Wellington ' 'society richly deserved all it got. But what disgusts me is the amount of idiotic notoriety that has been given to this young woman and her behaviour. Her case was a very ordinary one, and she could scarcely have passed muster anywhere else on earth. She herself is a very ordinary young woman, -with neither beauty nor wit nor cleverness to commend her. But the crawling curiosity of Wellington has put and kept her on a sort of pedestal. The thing is nauseous. She went into a bar after the proceedings against her in the Lower Court had concluded, and to that bar flocked half the young/and old fools of the town. She held her nose high, and assumed all the airs of a celebrity. Wellington stood by meekly and gazed at her. It is fully time-that Wellington got sense. But in such a matter that is rather too much to expect. '