PARTLY MARRIED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 330, 18 December 1880, Page 2

PARTLY MARRIED.

A curious story is told of a French marriage. A business man at Lyons was betrothed to a young Frenchwoman whose expectations were considerable enough to give her the right to be called an heiress. The contract had been published in the church, and on the day, fixed for the civil marriage the young couple, with their friends and relations,' 1 met at tht> mairie. The mayor asks .the, bride and bridegroom the fatal qiwstidffs; “ Do you- take so-and-so for^Brife a ?” “ Do you. take so-and-so fpr husband?'?’ Both answer “ Y.eS;” The mayor pronounces them. rajtriried, and offers’ his congratulations. The next step is to sign the register. The. husband end wife—so they are called—sign, and so do fche.il* friends ; the mayor is just about

to when a telegram is put intplSg his hands announcing that the bride~||| groom has already been married in a,i|p| foreign country, and the needful to prove the statement are on their The Mayor hesitates, and telU the gSa party to come before him again in a fort—night from the date. -Meanwhile.nothiug;|p| more is heard from the sender 01 the ‘Jgjjj telegram, and, assuming it to have dispatclied by some mischevious or volent persons, the Mayor tells the all p|| but already married couple tlmt he is ready to sign the register. But the lady has changed her mind. She declare that she believes the story of the tele- ,3 gram, sends back her presents, and bids. the Mayor on no account to sign. The- ¥t|J husband (or the nine-tenths of a bus- M band) on the other hand} bids the Mayor sign. The Mayor consults the jadge de paix, who advises him- to do what the lady tells him. He takes .the advice, and at present the heiress and' her ad- : .|p mirer are nothing to one another, as 7|j| little as if they hdd never said, ‘yes’_ to a || momentous question, and never signed. their names in the register. They is many a slip * twixt the cup and the 1! P- ‘ 'lfl