WOOING LIKE A TIGER.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 17, 4 March 1913, Page 2

WOOING LIKE A TIGER.

HOW MAETERLINCK WAS WON BY | - HIS WIPE. i Mme. Maeterlinck, the wife of the famo.is Belgian poet and playwright, who was Mile. Georgette Leblanc, the actress, in a remarkable interview with a woman reporter of the New York "American,” tells the story (says the New York correspondent of the '“Express”) of her impetuous wooing of the shy, retiring Belgian ' genius who is now her husband. “Why I tell you this I do not know,” she began. “Nobody knows my story, but let me tell it. I was singing in opera convique in Paris. I had made a successful debut, and had signed a three year contract when I came across a philosophical look translated from your Emerson by Maeterlinck. . ’i‘ I read Maeterlinck’s preface, and was enraptured. I read and read. It was like talking of things my mind had dreamed of. One evening I remained awake all night thinking of of the book and the mind behind the I ook.

“I thought, ‘ He’s mine ; he’s my husband ; he’s my love, the only love I have ever known. I shall meet him. I shall love him. He shall love me.’

‘‘l betook myself to Brussels, where Maeterlinck lived, and I sought bis acquaintance. It was hard. 1 had to meet someone who knew him, an] when I did meet such a man he told me Mactcrlnck was a savage who detested pcoHe, especially the unreal people of the stage. THE MEETING. '•I was an unreal woman of the stage, but the admiration I felt for the writer of that wonderful book was real. " ‘ Besides,’ raid my friend, ‘ Maeterlinck is not v hat your imagination pictures h’m. He is old, and has a long and grizzly beard. He has passed into old age.’ “‘I was dhapi ointed, yet I still wanted; to meet him, and I said td my frien-1— '* I would love him as a daughter, if I cannot have him as ,my love. I shall meet him and and adopt him as my father.’ “A party was given, and I was invited. I never will forget that moment when I looked upon Maeterlinck, yoi ng, beautiful, and strong, a man among men.

vi shrieked out, and ran wildly toward him. He was afraid. I was like a baby-tiger. "T had dressed myself most originally. I wore a close-fitting black gown with a train, and I wore a diamond between my eyes, and no other jewels, no other colour, but my heart was a'lame, my eyes blazed, my cheeks burned like coals. “‘ My men, my man, you are mine,’ I said as I took his baud. Ke was afraid, and overcome by my audacity, as he thought it to he, but it was only my love which had come like a tempest in the forest. He was so wonderful, but so shy, so diffident.

"Finally he became interested in mo. He asked me pertinent questions about myself and my life. I told him the truth. There is never anything to hide in the life of perfectly truthful persons.

TWO NATURES. *"I told him I had two natures, one of the stage, joyous, indifferent to realities, whimsical, and pleasure-lov-ing, while the other was the housewife, the real woman, who would and could make sacrifices, who could and would be loyal, patient, enduring, kind. In both I was honest. In each I could be happy at times, but I wanted one to dominate the other. I wanted the real woman, the serious creature, that dwelt with midnight) oil over his philosophy, and the) woman who wanted to live to some purpose, to dominate. ■“Maeterlinck listened in his queer bird-like way. He did not know whether it was the truth, after all. It was interesting, he acknowledged, and new in his experience. I was sensitive. * You doubt me,’ I said. ‘Leave me and I shall make you believe in me.’ '“We parted, but love lingered in my heart. Every day for three months I wrote to him and told him my every thought. He stil has all these letters, and says he will never part with them. >‘‘l never saw him, nor would I see him. My letters told him my story. He tried to see me, but he tried in vain. AT LAST. *At last, after three months, in which I had thought of nothing but him, he came to me, and we have loved each other for all time. Today I love him with an infiniteness of love that was unknown then to me. “I have a baby, the only baby I have ever longed for, and ever shall have —my husband. He is a big, overgrown baby, as every splendid man is. '•"The greater the intelligence of a man the more a child he is in some moods. A successful wife, with or without children, will never overlook the fact that her biggest baby is her husband.’’