SEQUEL TO ROMANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19275, 13 March 1926, Page 11

SEQUEL TO ROMANCE.

WIFE'S DIVORCE ACTION.

COURTSHIP ON .A LINER. LONDON. March, 3. The romantic meeting of a young Australian heiress and the ship's purser aboard the P. and 0. liner Moolttm. oil a voyage to , England, in 1913, has had a seqtiel in the Divorce Court. ' Biitlt Madeline Cavendish is suing for a'divorce from Charles Alfred Cavendiih, formerly purser of the Moo!tan, who now holds a high position in the P. arid* 0. Company's service. Petitioner alleges that respondent committed misconduct wTth Margoterite ; ; 'Moreaii arid with : Mrs, Dofotiiy" Brand, whose husband fs staffed to be connected with tho P. arid 0. Company'n Calcutta ofiiee arid to be a brother of the senior partner of tho Indian branch. Counsel for Mrs. Cavendish, Mr. lv. Preedy, said' respondent claimed connection vrith 'the famous Cavendish family,(of which the Duko of Devonshire is the head). Within four days of their.:meeting Mr. and Mrs. Cayendish became engaged. Cayendish presented her with ,a .ring which ho alleged bore the family "arms. He Jsiiid he was financially embarrassed/ but his fiancee knew that when she came of ago in 1914 she would inherit £.18,000, and she promised to cable him fJIOOO. from Australia to buy - furniture. She cabled the money before sailing ,foi London •in 1914. ; Husband Bursts into Tears. She married. Cavendish, on her arrival in London, Where slid received the first shock of her married life in discovering that Cavendish had not spent tho £IOOO on making a home. She was still unaware how he had spent it. Out of her income of £lloo' a year, she provided their home, to which Cavendish contributed £29 a month. She received a letter from Cavendish in 1922, stating that lie had met Mrs. Brand aboard tho Mooltan, and had stayed at the same hotel in Sydney, Cavendish' met Mile. 'Moreau' aboard the Narkunda, in 1923. Ho hurst into tears when his wife threatened to leave him. He said hia friendship with Mile. and Mrs. Brand was purely platonic. LaWf, his wife discovered a counterfoil fn his cfaeque-hook, showing a payment of £l7 10s in favour of Mrs. Brand. She ascertained also that CavendisTi had engaged a West isnd flat. A detective saw Cavendish enter the flat, sind found Mile. Moreau tfierc. Cavendish was not present, presumably having taken refuge In the cellar. Mile. Moreau switched off the lights. Petitioner an Alleged Flirt. • * Mrs. Cavendish, under cross-examina-tion, admitted that she wrote affectionately to a man named "Jim," who was in Mesopotamia, in 1917. Cavendish's counsel did not' suggest that misconduct had occurred, but suggested that her flirtations had causal domestic unhappiness. Mrs. Cavendish explained that '* Jim " was an Australian doctor wbotn she had known from childhood. < Asked whether she would give him a " big kiss," as stated in the letter, she replied, J * Probably." In reply to an assertion that Cavendish received a salary of £6OO a year and that he had perquisites worth £6OO, his counsel declared that his only remuneration was his salary of £498, with a bonus. The evidence showed that much hingej on the identity of a man and a woman who were seen on the balcony of a flat in Alberm/irle Street at. midnight., The cross-examination aimed at proving that private detectives were mistaken, and that it was not the balcony o? Mrs. Brand's flat that they were watching, A doctor gave evidence that Cavendish was drinking heavily in 19!J3.

The contention of the defence is that this was due to his wife's threat to leave him.