A ROMANCE IN REAL UFE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2306, 19 December 1889, Page 3

A ROMANCE IN REAL UFE

' A case of mistaken identity, Involving elements of dram- tlo interest loffio'.ent to o Sake the fortune of a sensational novel has jmfc occurred m Hni zjrlaud. A young couple named Favre, be'o-glng to tho working ohes, had lived happily together for some years at Neao ; &- 1, when tbe husband a working m-.eon. b.gsn to elve way to habits of drinking. Efforts were made to reola'm him, nnd h* becsmo an abstainer fov a lima; Some mi tha ego, however, ba bioko out again BLd left bis home* Hla wife bad he*rd n thing of bim for three mor ths, when oro night ehe was swakeacd bya voice calling ber repeatedly from the street . outside, and whioh she felt sure was that 'of her hosbsnd. She rose, dressed, and wen. into the street, but found no one A few deys afterwards she read an acoount ln the newspapers of a man who had committed suioide on the railway at a email village near B&'le. From the description of him ehe eaepeoted It might be; her missing husband, and became full of] the idea that the voice she bad heard was a oommnoloation from him atj the moment of de»t v » She was oorro-, boreted In her belief by learning, as tha result of Inquiries, that be bad m.de application for work at a neighboring quarry j but, belDg In drink at the time, he had been roughly refused by the foreman. The body bad now for some time been interred, but In ord- r to pat an ecd to her suspense tbe poor .roman, having &ot together a little money, started off with the determination to have tne body disinterred. She reaohed the village and after some delay eeonred permission lo open the grave. Wl*h two or three men ac assistants she set to work. When the cofi-u was opened the tfflivlom was ao terrible that hee oompantons ran, and left her alone with her dead. For twenty mlr.nteß, unaided, she pursued her ghastly task. Tbe body bad beeu decapitated by the train, and the head,hotrlbly mutilated, wes wrapp d by itself m a clttb. She (naoovered it, and rco gnlsed tt by tho teeth. One of the stockings also sho knew pgain from having mendrd It with a p.rt'oular kind of worsted. Her worst fc-ata thus confirmed, she returned home fn the depths of sorrow. Tbe aged moth, r of thr m*n was informed of tho Identification, and mourning was beir.g prepared for the whole family, when the o;ownlog act of the drama wis furnished by a letter just reoelved froai Favre bionolf, announcing that be Is at Winter tho? ai va and well ! Thr> wife had, after all, Identified the wr <ng man ! Who It Is that sctuslly lies iv tha*. lonely gravj no o_e knows. What woo d r. t Wslk c Colics have made oit of tha'. m:dai-,'.;; voice, the graveyard vi.vl, and the ex-r.iordluary denouement I