A BRIEF ROMANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

A BRIEF ROMANCE.

SEQUEL TO THE DIVORCE OF MM£ .

MELB&'S SON. An" echo of the short-lived romance of' a i boy and girl marriage was heard in the Divorce Court, when Sir John Bigham granted leave of - substitute service in reference to the marriage settlement:; in the divorce proceedings brought by Mrs. Ruby;; Armstrong against her husband Mr. Nesbit Armstrong. •

Mr. Armstrong, vwho is now in India; ig.i' the only son tff Mme. Melba, the prima donna. He married Phoebe Georgia Frances Ruby, the only child of Colonel and Mrs. Jocelyn Otway, of Park Lane. She was only 18 and he a handsome bo* of; 21. .•,.// . The marriage took place at St. George's, x Hanover Square, in 1906. After the ceremony the young couple went to America, and' here, the girl-wife found early disillusion.

Mr. Armstrong gave way 'to dreadful fits of temper and outbursts of bad lan- - guage. In Texas early in 1907 lie in- , sulted his wife at a ranche in the present of a number of cowboys, and when shf * remonstrated he flung her down, injuring her head against a bar- of iron. They returned to England, and during a tout on the south coast- Mr. Armstrong pushed : his wife in'iO the- 6ea. Further violent scenes took place in tk autumn of the same year in Australia, in spite of the intervention of Mme. M<elba herself, and the series of sad adventure! came to an end in London, when Mr. Armstrong was discovered hiding under a lady's bed at the Hotel Metropole. With the aid of a walking-stick the irate husband flung him out of the room. o ' Mre.. Armstrong instituted divorce pro - ceedings, and a decree nisi was pronounced and subsequently made absolute.