I found that she had left her home two or three days previously on the promise of marriage, and was now left without means, and was afraid to communicate with her parents.
I placed her in a room in a smaller hotel, and in the meantime wrote to the father. However, before he received my letter he had started for Paris, having heard his daughter was there, and came to see me in great anxiety about his child. His relief and astonishment were remarkable when I told him I knew the whereabouts of his daughter. A reconciliation was effected, and the girl was taken home.
One of the most remarkable illustrations of the difficulties English people sometimes get into abroad is the following:
Early one morning (6 a.m.) I was sent for to visit two young ladies in a small hotel, who were said to have become insane.
I went down and found one of the sisters on the ground floor holding the door leading to the staircase, and not allowing anyone to pass. She would answer no question, nor permit me to pass to see her sister. With some difficulty I obtained access to the room where the sister was, by another way, but found her in a like state, and unwilling to answer any question, or to give the address of any relative. The difficulty was that the proprietor of the hotel wished to have them removed at once to an asylum, which I felt would only aggravate the malady from which they suffered. I called in an English doctor (since passed away) who most kindly helped, and forbade the proprietor to have them removed. By searching amongst the papers in their room I discovered an address in London, and telegraphed for their relatives to come at once. My wife and I had a trying experience all that night—we sat up with the girls, one of whom had to be fastened to the bed, having become violent. She was shouting all night, and gave a great deal of trouble.
The relatives arrived the next morning, and the necessary steps were taken for their removal. It turned out that these young ladies had been dabbling in hypnotism, and had spent the greater part of the day previous to their illness with some “professor.” One died and the other only recovered after a long illness.
BRITISH CONSUL-GENERAL.
We frequently had to help English artists connected with circuses, shows, etc., who got stranded in France. One morning a smart-looking person called at the house and told me she had a number of performing dogs held at the Gare de Lyon because of some payment demanded, which she could not meet. If she could not get the dogs she would be ruined. By the kind help of the British Charitable Fund I was able to get the dogs set free. On another occasion, when I went down to service, I found in the Church some fifty ballet girls waiting to see me. They had been brought over to play in an exhibition in Paris, but the proprietor having failed, the light was cut off and the place closed. They had no means to get back to England. By the kindness of the British Consul, and again by the help of the British Charitable Fund, these girls were all sent back, and very grateful they were. Not knowing the language they were indeed “strangers in a strange land.” Whenever companies of English girls came over to perform in theatre or music hall, I tried to get opportunities to address them; but it was not an easy part of one’s duty.
Difficulties owing to mixed marriages frequently arose. It cannot be too often explained that there is no difficulty in two English people being married abroad, providing there is no impediment such as would prevent the marriage at home. Civil marriage at the British Consulate should first take place, and the religious ceremony can follow. But in the case of mixed marriages it is absolutely necessary that the contracting parties should satisfy French law, and first be civilly married at the Mairie. A marriage (French and English) in England is not valid in France unless the French Consul in England has first performed the civil rite. Much distress has been caused by not obeying the law. I will give but one instance, though I might give many. It is an important one, as questions were asked in the House of Commons about it, and a statement as to the law sent broadcast to the Clergy of England. The case is this: