POPPING THE QUESTION

Shannon News, 16 April 1926, Page 4

POPPING THE QUESTION

SUDDEN MARRIAGE PROPOSALS MADE BY GREAT MEN.

The private life of celebrities holds a fascination for most of us. We delight in the stories of how they became great, how they lived, and wonder if they were at all extraordinary in their love affairs. Many of them certainly were, if we read the records of the proposals they made to the ladies of their choice. What sort of a proposal was Vic-, tor Hugo's to Adele Foucher, for instance? His was essentially an idyllic proposal. They had known each other as children, when they used to play together, and this early friendship eventually ripened into love. But it was not until these two were one day walking in Hugo's garden that they confessed to each other their great mutual passion. "I am sure you have secrets, Victor," said Adele. "Come, what is your greatest secret? Tell me, and I will tell you mine." "I love you!" answered Hugo, without a moment's pause. "And I love , you, Victor," murmured the girl. , Thereupon Hugo caught her to him and passionately kissed her on the lips, her eheeks j her eyes, and her hair. . ■ '■ • Garibaldi's proposal was mucn more abrupt. While in command oi a small schooner sailing off the coast of Brazil, he espied through his telescope a beautiful girl standing on the beach. Immediately he gave orders for. the ship to stop, and was taken ashore. On his arrival at the spot where he had seen the girl, he found that she had gone, and he was about to return to his ship, when he happened to meet a friend, who invited him to his house. On arrival there, the first person Garibaldi met was the' girl whose beauty had caused him to alter his course. They regarded each other for a short time; then Garibaldi impulsively exclaimed: "You must be mine." And shortly afterwards she became his wife. Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian Shakespeare, made no proposal, except that one of his books so impressed Mme. Georgette Leblanc that she is said to i have declared then and there: "This man shall be my husband, and none other.*'

From that time her one aim in life was to get ito \ know Maeterlinck, and what actually happened when then did eventually meet is best described in Mme. Leblanc's own words: — "I was a little tigress. My heart was terribly excited; my cheeks burned, my eyes were aflame. I took his hand and said to him: 'You are mine. You are my husband.' " Maeterlinck naturally was very much taken aback at the suddenness of the proposal, but the sequel was very interesting; for Mme. Leblahc became Mme. Maeterlinck. Lord Kelvin used one- of his own inventions to". propose to his future wife. He first met her in the .Canary Islands. She, too, was of .a scientific turn of mind,, and Kelvin took the trouble to explain to. her in detail the new system he had Invented of signalling at sea. At length the time came for his departure, ' and as he bade .the . lady good-bye, be asked her if she thoroughly understoOfj the system of signalling. She replied that she did. "Then watqh the vessel as it disappears from view," said Kelvin, "and I will flash your a message." The. lady did so, and the message she rea,j was: "Will you be my wife?" Sir Richard Burton's proposal to the beautiful Isabell Arundel was quite a pretty little romance. They first met in Boulogne, and, although he was attracted to her, yet he did not have any really deep feeling for her, though she had fallen in love with him at first sight. At length she returned to England, and they did not meet again for six years. Then they met in 'the Botanic Gardens:—

"We immediately stopped and shook hands (Isabel wrote), andaskeach other innumerable questions of the intervening years. He asked me if I often came to the gardens. I said '.Oh, yes, we always come and read and study here from eleven to one.' .We were in the gardens about an hour; and when I had to leave he gave me a particular look as he did at Boulogne." Afterwards, they met frequently, and at the end cf two v eeks he suddenly put his arm around her and asked: "Could you do anything so silly as to give up civilisation? If I can get the Consulate of .Damascus, will you marry me and go to live there?" So sudden and so unexpected was his proposal that Isabel was at first too overcome to reply. "I have prayed for you every morning and night," she then replied, "and 1 would rather have a crust and a tent with you than be queen of the world —and so I say now, Yes, Yes, Yes!" Robert Browning fell in love with Elizabeth Barrett while reading her poetry, and at once ho wrote her a letter of appreciation in which he said: "I do, as I pay, love all these works with all my heart and I love you, too." Their first meeting took place Ave months afterwards, and it was a momentous day in their lives. Browning fell deeper in love with the frail little invalid, and shortly fitter his return home he sent a letter full of "wild speaking." She however returned his letter, and begged him to destroy it. i Browning did as she bade him, and held himself firmly in hand, j She strove to stifle her love for him, deeming it wrong for an Invalid to indulge in it, while all the j time her heart was crying out to.' herself in secret sonnets—-" Sonnets from the Portuguese." Later she

promised that, if her health improved during- the coming- winter, she would consent to their engagement. When spring- arrived her health had much improved, and ..Browning then claimed her promise. She laid her hand in his: ‘‘lt is your hand, while you hold it,” she said. “I have been drawn back into life by your means ,an c i for you.” Thus did she say “yes” to life and love.