A DRAMATIC ELOPEMENT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1679, 4 May 1904, Page 19

A DRAMATIC ELOPEMENT

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 18. A curate has been causing a good deal of excitement in Plymouth this week, especially amongst the ladies, by running off with the daughter of a well-known resident. The pair fled to London, and were just about to be married in a Bayswater church when a Scotland Yard detective, instructed by the girl’s father, appeared on the scene and stopped the proceedings. It seems that the clergyman, who was a curate in a London church, obtained a special marriage license from the Bishop of London, and arranged with the vicar of St. Matthew’s to perform the ceremony on Thursday afternoon of last week. B'shop and vicar, of course, acted in perfect good faith, having no reason to suppose the license was in any way irregular. The curate and his bride-elect left Plymouth by the morning train, but the young lady’s absence aroused suspicions in her household, who guessed the real state of affairs, and telegraphed to Scotland Yard to have the train met by a detective. The girl being only nineteen,. the police were instructed to prevent the marriage on the ground that she was under age. At the same time an aunt of the girl’s, living in London, was informed that they had run away and that a detective -would be at Paddington. She also was asked to watch the arrival of the train, and help to identify the girl. On the platform at Paddington an amusing scene occurred. Though the a.unt knew that a detective would be there, the detective was in complete ignorance of the aunt’s status. When she saw a man on the platform obviously waiting for the train, she asked him if he were a detective, but tlie latter, suspecting that the lady was ill league'with the runaways, denied his identity until the aunt having persistently stated that if lie were not a detective he ought to be, lie - gathered that it was safe to reveal himself. A few minutes after two o’clock the train steamed in. The detective remained in the background, while the aunt walked up to her niece and remonstrated with her. The girl, however, refused to listen, and hastily.'stepped into a cab with the curate, who told the cabman to drive as fast as he could to the Westbourne Grove entrance to; Whiteley’s emporium. The aunt ah&' detective followed m separate cabs, and reached Whiteley’s a very few seconds after the would-be bride and bridegroom. The runaways were, off course, totally unaware of the detective’s presence, and by dashing through the

maze of departments; in Whiteley’s they felt confident of shaking off any pursuit on the part of the aunt. Upstairs, through the glass department, and downstairs again, and in and out through the different sections they hurried until finally they reached the bakery shop, from Avbicli they made their exit into the Queen’s road. Once again tliov called a cab, and driving as rapidly as they could reached St. MattheAv’s Church just after 2.30. But the detective Avas close behind, and he was the first to get the vicar’s ear. He slioAved his authority to prevent the marriage, and the vicar accordingly declined to perform the ceremony. He asked the girl Avliether she Avas of age or not, and after some evasion she admitted that she Avas under twenty-one. Her father came tap to toAvn next morning and took his daughter home. The curate has'found it advisable to take a holiday in Switzerland.