SOCKS AND SENTIMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13727, 18 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOCKS AND SENTIMENT.

PROPOSED ON A 'BUS. An engagement which was said to have been made in March last year and to have been broken in the following September formed the basis of an action in the King's Bench Division, when Miss Mary Beetleatone, of Smethwick, Birmingham, sued Mr. Trevor Ralph Brown, a Sutton buteherj for damages for breach of promise of marriage. Mr. J. A. Simon, K.C., for the lady, said she was a qualified nurse, and the defendant's people were associatad with Redhili and Sutton, in Surrey. The plaintiff Had to attend a Mrs. Page in the immediate neighbourhood of where Brown lived, near Redhili. His father died some time ago, and left £10,000 of personal property, and the defendant had told the plaintiff of *he prospects which he had. Brown's relations were butchers, and he had been trained in the business with a view to going into partnership with his uncle. After some little acquaintance, counsel continued, Miss Beetlestone and Brown became engaged in London on March 22 last. Later on. when the defendant broke off the engagement, counsel added, Brown said that when he met the plaintiff in August he had made up his mind not to marry her. Mt. Simon mentioned that he could read no letter of plaintiff's, because the defendant in his affidavit stated that he had burned then when he received them. One of defendant's letters to plaintiff commenced. " My dearest May," and ran : " 1 have always looked upon things in general from a. "selfish point of view, but now, dearest, you are my guardian angel. " Dearest, I am glad you have had a good think over all that we "talked about. It is always best to look on the toughest side of life, "then there are not many disappointments. "I fail to express myself,but lam trying to tell you my course of thought, and when you are" reading this we shall be together in mind." On March 27 Brown wrote to the lady's father, stating that at present ho was not in a position to provide a home, but hoped to do so in the future. He concluded, counsel said, as follows: — "There are business men more worthy of your daughter's keeping than '1 ami There is to me no trait in her character denoting self!" The following day he wrote to plaintiff: "My dearest May,—l have just written to your dear father. '■ I am afraid he will not consider me in the same light you have done. Good-bye and God bless you is the sincere wish of you. Trevor R. Brown." Later he sent the following : — " I have just received a very nice letter from your dear father, much nicer than 1 deserve. " God grant I may never give your dear father cause to regret his sanction of our marriage. "Your dear father says it has always been his wish you should marry an honourable man." " AN AWFUL CAD." When she was staying with his family there was a horse show, and he appeared to think more of a pony he was exhibiting than of his fiancee. lie wrote with regard to this — "I am glad you enjoyed the show, i was delightfully surprised to see you. Really it does not suit you to be cross. You were jolly wild with me. Don't you be cross again, mother noticed it. You must forgive me for neglecting you. . . I was proud of my turnout. Next year I hope to get the cup. "It is very good of you to promise to make a waistcoat and socks for me. My 'size for socks is eights.With best love, your loving Trevor R. Brown." A month later, in September, he wrote: " Dearest May,—Thanks for your letter; also for the sock, which lam returning. It

is rather too small. Please don't trouble to make any more, as my mother has just rigged me out. The last week or ten days l 1 am all upset, as the new lodger has arrive.!. Please don't worry about me any more, as things are not going very well. " It is very kind of you to ask me to come to Birmingham to see you, but it is out of the question, as in business it is not customary to give holidays very often, and I got. off in August. "You have been very good, indeed, to me in every way, but somehow things are not what they ought to be. As far as I am concerned, 1 think it better to part rather than live a life of misery. I have not done this withe ' much consideration, and I think M*rs. Page was right. We did not, and do not, know each other well enough, and rather than trying to make believe I love you, I thought it better to tell you now. " Please don't upset yourself, but if ever I can do anything I should be only too pleased. I wanted te tell you at. the 'show, but you looked so ill I thought it better to put it off. 1 feei I am an awful cad, but must ask you to forgive and forget that such as I ever existed." The plaintiff, a good-looking young woman dressed in brown, in her evidence told how Mr. Brown had proposed on the top of an omnibus going to Hampstead. She had kept his pleasant letters and destroyed those which were not so nice. She was • nursing a case in Edgbaston when she got the defendant's last letter, and she was completely broken down for two or three days. At the time of the engagement defendant told her he was 25; she was 26. " Didn't he strike you as being a little bit of a bumpkin suggested defendant's .own counsel, amid laughter. " Oh, no," replied plaintiff. , Mr. Simmer said this was the sort of case that ought never to have been brought into court at all. The defendant, when he found that his feelings towards the plaintiff had changed, did what any honest man would do —he wrote and told her of it. The hearing was adjourned.