FRENCH GOVERNOR AND PRETTY ACTRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10063, 8 June 1910, Page 7

FRENCH GOVERNOR AND PRETTY ACTRESS.

The marriage of Mile. Juliette Thaldy, a pretty y..rung actress, to M. Merland-Ponty, Governor of French West Africa, is the culmination of a dainty romance. Engagement, courtship, and marrage were rapid and dramatic. It all began last September, when a company of Parisian stars, homeward bound from South America put into Dakar to fulfil a promise made by cable fiotn Fio Janeiro that they would give a performance at the local theatre. The boat was delayed by terrible weathar, and instead o: six in the evening, did not arrive till past midnight. As the manager of the company had promised they should per form, he determine;] to give a theatrical representation at Mil hazards. He rallied his sleepy company, and they were rowed ashore by the native boatmen in the dead oi nit;lit. and hurried to the tbeairo. At one o'clock the performance was ready to begin. Then for the first time the manager thought of trie audience, There was not a single spectator. The local party had long since up their expected guests -n despair and gone to bed. When told < f this predicament the energetic manager merely replied, "Then wake them up!" | The Governor, despite his viceregal powers, was rot cxerrpted. Resounding knocks at his door brought out M. Merlanci-Ponty m his pyjamas to be informer', like another Hamlet, "The players have arrived, my lord!" By two in the morning the audience began to assemble in the theatre. Ivl. Merknd Ponty, rubbing his eyer, went forward, witii many apologies, to express bis personal regret to the company. .His rank carried him behind the scenes, and theie he came face to face with Mile, lhaldy, quite one of the minor actresses. It was iove at first sight, at any rate, on the Governor's part. He never took his eyes off her during the performance, and at the subsequent si/pper, or breakfast —it was given at his house towards six in the morning—paid the pretty lady marked attention, /it eight t!;o entire company vvtnt aboard, una the Governor saw the mjeet of his sudden passion ssil at sunrise on a storm-swept occsn. A month or so later M. MerlandPonty obtained leave, travelled to Paris, married the lady, who had ac cepted him by Utter already; and took his fair bride back to Dakar. Here she now re gns with biro over French West Africa.