MARRIAGE MADE IN THE THEATRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MARRIAGE MADE IN THE THEATRE.

Taking it all round, says the New York World, "The Wife" was the most successful play of the season, and the feminine attendance was very large. It is with the first Wednesday matinee that this story is concerned, (he details of which may interest other young women who spend their Wednesday afternoons at the Lyceum Theatre. There lived in this town a certain young woman who had attained the dignity of nineteen years and the proud distinction of a " story." She was referred to with interest and sympathy by her girl friends as "Poor, dear M ! You've heard her story ? Wasn't it awfully sad ?" Now, the story was this :—At the age of seventeen she made her debut at a Delmonico ball, and before the season was out her fellowdebutantes considered it as good as settled that she would marry a certain young Englishman of wealth and position who had devoted himself to her with great assiduity and evident earnestness. lie was everything that could be wished for, by either herself or her parents, and the young woman awaited with placid confidence lite definite and inevitable question. It came at last in the form of a respectfillip ardent letter, which she laid before her parents, and, with their approval, answered in the affirmative. She waited all day for the lover to make his appearance, but lie never arrived. Three days later she learned he had sailed for home. There were some tears and a good deal of indignation in the household, but the young woman was too proud and wounded coo deeply to ask for explanations, and the matter was allowed to drop. However, the story got out, as stories will, and the friends of the young woman have expressed to each other a good ileal of sympathy for her, though they novel dared mention it to the girl herself. That was nearly two years ago. At the first Wednesday matinee at the Lyceum this young woman arrived a little late, and, after crowding between a long row of more punctual persons, arrived at her seat in the middle of the row, and discovered to her horror that next her was the man who had so cruelly and brutally used her. She would have tied, hut d.ire not discommode all that row of people so soon 'again. She sank into her seat in dismay, and was somewhat comforted to see that the Englishman was equally discomposed. At the end of the act -he was about to rise, when he leaned forward, and said, " Von evidently dislike my presence here, but don't consider it necessary to go; let me do that. ' "No, she replied, with dignity, ''let neither leave. Wo are strangers; there is no reason why we should not sit next each other as any strangers do." Upon which the Englishman looked almost as puzzled as he had before looked angry, but subsided. At the end of the second act light appeared to have dawned upon him from some direction. He inquired anxiously, " Did you receive a letter from me two years ago'.'" " How dare you ask such a question'.' cried the angry girl. " Because it never was answered," he replied. Explanations followed, and by the time the curtain rose for the third act, matters were growing very comfortable again. To cut the story short, the young Britisher insisted that he should be allowed to put matters upon a perfectly safe basis. There could be no objection; they loved each other, the parents were witling, and he wished to take no possible risks in the future. The end of it was, they left before the play was over—perfectly unmindful of the scowls of the whole row of people they were annoying-—and in three hours and fifty-five minute- from the time of their meeting lie was in possession of a wife of his own. lie had come over to America again because he had business interests on this side, and, happening to be idle on that Wednesday afternoon, and attracted by the name of the play, he strolled into the matinee. There is to be another and public celebration of the marriage later, and the Englishman says lie would like to invite the- whole company and management of the Lyceum Theatre.