How De Lesseps Won His Wife.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 219, 17 December 1880, Page 2

How De Lesseps Won His Wife.

The story of M. De Lesseps’ marriage to his present wife is told by a London writer. She “ was nearly twelve years at the chateau of which she is now the chatelaine, staying on a visit. Her family name was De Braga. She was the very perfection of the French Creole type, and very romantic. She had been in the habit of listening to accounts of the diplomatic and materia! difficulties which M. De Lesseps overcame in Egypt, Paris and London, and of the courage and humanity he displayed in assisting plague-stricken Frenchmen when he was Consul at Alexandria. The relations she heard impressed her as the narrative of Othello’s adventures impressed Desderaona. Ilis courtliness, chivalrous manners, and vivacity enchanted a girl used to the indolent planters of the Isle of France. She was at La Chesnaye when all Europe was astir about the achievement of the Suez enterprise. Mile. Braga grew silent and solitary. One day in the garden she saw De Lesseps walking on a terrace. She plucked a rose and going up to him begged of him for her sake to wear it a.t dinner. He asked whether she did not mean it for his son ? No. It was for himself. Her host explained to.her that he was on the wrong side of sixty, while she w'as not yet nineteen. That did not matter. What his age was had never occurred to her. She had only thought of his greatness and his goodness. In short, he was her beau ideal. How was it possible for a man reared on the sunny side of a Pyreneean mountain to reason down the feelings this confession aroused ? Time was given Mile. De Braga to reflect, and she was made to understand that no friendship would be lost were she to change her mind,, after, the banns had been published.- The marriage was celebrated contemporaneously with the Suez fifes."