A ROMANTIC MARRIAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 291, 27 June 1857, Page 8

A ROMANTIC MARRIAGE.

An English adventure has given food for gossip in Paris during the week, and, as all's well that ends well, we are happy to record it. A few years ago a young English nobleman, just fresh from college, raw and inexperienced, fell desperately in love with the laundry-maid of the caßtle where his family resided. It appears that the passion first seized upon his soul while attending divine service at the village church, where Susan, by her modest demeanour and bright blue eyes, completely overset all the resolutions which the young nobleman's mother had conceived upon the subject of his future alliance with the daughter of the Earl of C , whose estate joins that of the young nobleman. How the acquaintance first began between a young nobleman who was reading for his degree^ and a young laundry-maid who could not read at all, no chronicle will ever tell ; but in a short time we find that, by the assistance of an old college friend just received into orders; at the very village church where the young lord had first beheld his Susan, in the first rosy blush of an April morning, with no other witnesses but the well-fed parish clerk and pew-opener — with no epithalamium but the joyous chant of the early birds— no pomp and splendour but those afforded by the great spring festival of nature, which the young lord, just then deep in, Virgil, appreciated more than any other kind, was he united to his Susan ; and before the sun was risen to his noonday height, the happy pair were already on their way to France. For, some months the young lord lived in the happy delusion which had presented to his youthful imagination the fair Susan as the most enchanting, and most lovely of her sex. But honeymoons are. like moons of every other kind ; they have their waning hour, and: it .the end of!ia certaia .tune the young lord, began to perceive} !to, his utter sas-, tonishment — for he had never iperceivedit before — that the gentle Sushh.wab not merely in-i nocent, as he had ever thought ; her,,but pro* foundly ignorant likewise f* He asked himself

. how it could have happened that he had not ' observed this unfortunate fact at the very com- (- m^ticeTn'efti 'of 'their acquGfthfy'nc'e'— ifoy he could have live^/bur rhonths' In net tfdntpdify ! without perceiving" ' it — ahti. now it' happened 1 , that just as the fifth month' had, begun, and he was oh the point of sitting down to lead a qtiiet domestic life, and enjoy the, security and peace of the married state, he should start, back-in fear and trembling at the dreadful prospecfe before him- ! Poor Susan, of course, could not^ 1 solve the mystery. She, poor soul ! was more enchanted with her existence than ever, while her noble husband grew more gloomy and discontented every day. At length the horrid truth became apparent. It would be impo&nble to return to England with Susan as his bride. Every act and every expression of the poor laundry-maid now jarred and shocked the nerves of the young nobleman- i -in short, the dreadful fact was soon revealed to him in all its ugliness — he was no longer in love ! Just about this time the young man's family, to whom his flight with Susan was well known, but who still remained in ignorance concerning the marriage,- began to be importunate with respect to his return. No longer held by the ties of that all-absorbing love which had cost him so much sacrifice, the young nobleman agreed in spirit with the views of his family. But how to break the dreadful fact to Susan £ To his astonishment, however, he found her grown as reasonable as himself, consenting without a murmur to his proposition that she should remain In France to imbibe some sort of education, while he repaired to England to pave the way for an avowal of the truth to his lady mother. Susan, who had learnt to believe that every idea emitted by her lord was the right one, consented to everything; and accordingly, with tears and sorrow at the separation, but with gratitude for all the goodness and forethought displayed by her husband, took up her residence at a school in the Faubourg St. Honore, where as dame en chambre she was to receive the benefit of the first instruction which Taris could afford. Time passed on ; the young lord, punctual in his payments, soon grew amid the gaieties of his new life as master of his own actions, and the flattering and cajolings of the fashionable world, to look upon himself as bound by no other obligation to the hapless Susan. His letters grew more and more rare, always telling of the' extreme restraint in which he was held by his relations, and the want of means by which he suffered, urging the greater necessity for secresy, until at length Susan, who believed all, wrote to him a letter full of affection, announcing with pride'that an opportunity occurring of relieving him of the burthen of her maintenance, she had accepted a situation ascompanion to Lady E ■, who was going to Montpelier for her health, and had been staying in the same school with her. This took place five years ago, and during all this time at would appear that the young lord — caring but little for the embarrassment of the introduction or recognition of his wife — content with the assurance given from time to time of her health and welfare — satisfied of the entire purity and respectability of the life she was leading, was maintaining at home the freedom and liberty of an unmarried man, until a short time sinee r by the death of his mother, being necessitated to make fresh family arrangements, he wa&. aroused from his apathy with regard to the patient Susan. Lady E- was then residing at Passy, and it was thither that Lord M directed his footsteps on his arrival. What passed at this interview, which had been sought by the husband as a mere acquit de conscience? and because he thought it derogatory to the family pride that his wife should live longer among strangers, will never be known. To the astonishment and delight of Lady E „ who had been long before admitted into the secret, Lord M — ' — ' remained abashed and staggered at the difference which the few years'" separation had made in his rustic Susan, now grown an elegant and accomplished woman, listening with perfect self-possession to all his protestations, and expressing herself with- all the reserve and dignity of a woman of theworld. Needless to say, that his old passion? was revived in full force, and that Susan is again the queen of his soul, as in former years? nor will it astonish bur readers to, learn that the husband and wife, once more bride -and bridegroom, have returned to England together — nor to see by the Court Journal that they entertained a distinguished partytat their;residence, B Castle,' Radnorshire; • We can. vouch for the entire truth of this storyi. Lady E-^— is well known in' Paris'; she has accompanied the happy couple to England, and looksfa upon Susan as her' adopted child. " ' '