ROMANCE OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1915, Page 3

ROMANCE OF THE WAR.

SEQUEL TO DEATH OF PEER'S NEPHEW. A most pathetic little romance of the war has been disclosed by the death in a little village near Poperinghe of a pretty Belgian girl of nineteen. Some months ago a number of British officers were billetted at the house of the girl's father, who is a retired forage contractor owning considerable property. Among the officers was a tall, -handsome young lieutenant, the younger son of a well-known peer's brother. He fell ill suddenly, and, expressing a wish to be allowed to remain where he was instead of being sent back to hospital, was nursed to health by his host's daughter. He conveyed his deep gratitude to the girl, and gave her a souvenir in the form of a little statuette of a British officer modelled by himself from a fragment of a German shell. A short time afterwards the officers were moving further up the line, and although the girl and her patient had been the greatest friends it is doubtful if he knew the full extent of her affection for him, which she was careful to try to conceal. He had only been gone a week, when she heard through one of his brother-officers that he had been killed, and the poor girl was no longer able to keep her secret. She confessed to her father that she had tried to forget, but could not. Theneeforwards every day saw her grow paler and thinner. Finally, she took to her bed and died a few weeks later, death being due, according to the doctor, to grief acting on a naturally fragile constitution.