SHRINE OF A LOST LOVE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2911, 25 October 1916, Page 3

SHRINE OF A LOST LOVE

Number 19, Queen's Gate, Kensington, has boen stricken and tenantlcss for over forty years. A part 'of it recently collapsed and killed two workmen who wero making some alterations, and at tho inquest an old romance was revived. Forty-fivo years ago a happy lover ibuilb No. 19 l'or his bride-to-bo. On tho cvo of tho wedding she eloped with Ilia brother, and No. 19 was left ready for tho home-coming, empty, whilo tho -faithful lover waited for her repentance ajtd return. Sho never came, and by and by tho man placed a caretaker in charge, aud never afterwards entered the liouso except to pay. this woman's wages. From that day until now, when the house lias passed into other hands, not a tiling was doiio to keep tho placo in order. Sorrow brooded in the empty rooms, and gossip pointed to the dreary monument until the story became common talk for a time, and then dropped out of memory. The man who all these years had been content to leave No. 19 tenant-less, merely to shrine a precious memory, had died, and the property had been sold by tho exccutors. But of the loved ono and the faithless brother and the course of their romance there was no word.