A ROMANY ROMANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

A ROMANY ROMANCE.

A Bpda-Prst correspondent of the London Graphic, writing in March, says:—ln aristo« cratic circles here there '■ is only one topic of conversation, the March madness of the •- 4 Countess Wilhelmine Festeticb, whose engagement of Nyari Rudi, a gipsy and ike leader of. a band of musicians, has just been made public. Nyari is a good-looking M* low enough, dresses well, and lias considerable musical talent. He is twenty-eight year ß of age and passed through the Buda-Pest Conservatoire before finding a billet a* bandmaster in a local restaurant. His fiance* is a person of brilliant parts and speaks five language* fluently. A great deal of nontfWW has appeared In the press as regards her immense fortune. As a matter of fact. a» , owns nothing during the lifetime or * father, though at his decease she will mnenS - i ' about £8000. Her gipsy lover was offered - ' a large sum by the family solicitor to renounce his pretensions to "the lady, hut he . refused. He is marrying her for love, M says, and for the rest he declares that he can earn enough to maintain her. Since her father, Count Paul Festetich, «*"'*!' * ■• second time the countess has lived with fl« *;; - aunt at Munich, and, while there, she raw* 1 the acquaintance of Count Sigmund Spretti, ■ , and in due course became engaged to tuni. With him she attended the concerts whicu the gipsy musician was giving at M«bu* and a month ago she startled her family 01 ' announcing that she loved her P rOS J )ec "* bridegroom no longer, and that the » ascu !!l ting of' Nyari had won her heart. A »* m .3 council was called and all , means were tt*g;-, . to make the countess change her mind. W» in vain. Finally, she fled; to the gW , ' i home, where she will remain until the ««■«' ding in a fortnight's time. -- -f: [Presumabzly, the countess is the perso- ~, referred to in a recent cable as having: Wfl» J disinherited by her father, and being, then-- ,j. fore, penniless.'] ' '