ROMANTIC LOVE QUEST.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8924, 18 September 1907, Page 4

ROMANTIC LOVE QUEST.

Paris and, indeed, all France, is deeply interested in a romantic lore drama now proceeding. The principal characters are a young French plumber named Victor, Mdlie. Andree, the daughter of a millionaire and the young lady’s father. Some weeks, ago Victor eloped with the pretty Andree'at lie Adam, and the irate father set to work to track the pair down. His. agents found them at Ostend, and then, ac- j cording to the special correspondent of the Telegraph, the course of true love began to run anything but smoothly. One fine morning the pretty damsel was kidnapped by her parents’ agents on the beach at Ostend, and carried away in an automobile. The : disappointed Romeo rushed back to Prance to recover his bride, but, alas! he soon learned that she was not at her father’s house. She had been taken to a safe place, and was being kept in forced seclusion. Victor, who is a fine looking fellow, and distinguished himself in the past as a corporal in the Paris Fire Brigade, swore that he would find and rescue her even, if necessary, with hook and ladder. He wandered from suburb to suburb, ready to ask every passerby ‘ ‘ Have you seen my belle i Then ho discovered the retreat ot his pretty Andree, and at once sot out, accompanied by his father and some village youths of He Adam anxious to help a comrade in dis--1 tress. The young lady was shut up iu the house of a doctor at Saint Ouen I’Aumoue, a pretty villa in ■lie midst of green trees, where the love-lorn lady was prevented from escaping by stalwart guardians. Victor thought he was about to carry the villa by storm, when the wary parent, who had got wind of his expedition, sent an urgent telegram to the police commissary, asking for protection. Early in the afternoon, thereore, six gendarmes, with regulation cap and uniform, end sabres clinking at their sides, marched up in heavy boots and took up strategic positions around the villa. ~ . , A moment later Victor and Ins detachment arrived. He was baulked this time, and ordered his jinen to retreat, while he walked up and down before the villa reading a paper, while the whole village, startled by the appearance of gendarmes, gathered round. Suddenly an automobile drove up, the father of Andree alighted, entered the villa, and after a while came out again and drove away. While he was gone Victor boldly came along reading his paper. A gendarme called to him, “Say, what are you doing there, young man?” “And you?” promptly retorted the imperturbable Victor. The gendarme smiled knowingly, and said no more. When two hours were up six more gendarmes came and relieved the first, and so on during the whole night. Meanwhile, however, - the crowd learned the secret. Their sympathies wore at once with Victor. A voice cried out, “Courage, Andree, Victor is here,” aud Andree heard it iu the villa, no doubt with great delight. That the affair will end iu a nuptial march nobody at Saint Oneu I’Aumone doubts, despite the obstinacy of the father, for it is certain that lovers will always have their way.