The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1896-09-26 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

MURDER, . WILL OUT!  WRONGLY °- ACCUSED.  A:COMPLETETSTORY:  "I say you shall not go, Aline." , "Shall not ! "  The words were hurled at the first speaker with all tho surprise and scorn that Alice Maydew's sweet young voice could express. She stood at full height, her dainty head crested, her gentian-blue eyes flashing under the curling, dark lashes. "Shall not? Since when Lave you become my master, George Allison? lam yet free to act upon my own judgment—" "The judgment of a child," he said bitterly. Ile was a handsome young man, with a blonde countenance that usually wore the light of cheerful spirits and animation, but now it was darkened and determined. Ho regarded the girl with sombre eyes and the lines of his mouth compressed. "You are headstrong and wilful,"he said. "I advised you, but in vain. I pleaded with you, but you would not listen." "Then do not hope to gain you object by cornmaids," said Alice, defiantly. "You are prejudiced against Maurice Duval; he is a perfect gentleman, and I like him. Why should I refuse his courtesies? Simply because you have made up your mind that there is to be no friendship between us? But you cannot move me." She looked at him with the mocking defiance that one sometimes sees on the face of a wilful child. At any other time George would have been amused, but now he was stung to the heart.  "Because you are in, his power," he said, hotly. "Alice, you care no longer for me, he has come between us. You love him."  "If I do ? " she asked, coolly. He flushed and quivered beneath the query; the veins in his temples stood out like cords. " Heavens ! can it be?" he cried, with his clenched hands and set teeth. "The smoothtongued hypocrite I could kill him." „n. _george ! -4* = - Alice retreated, with a look of fright on her fair face never had she seen such passion as was revealed by the young man's look and tones. "I could kill him!" he reiterated fiercely. "He has come between us and won you from me. Let him beware, for there is a demon within me that cries out for revenge. Defy and mock me as you will, Alice—you will live to regret it!" - Then with only a dark, menacing glance at the dumbfounded girl, he turned and hastened away. Alice started forward with her breath coming in little gasps. "George! Oh he is gone! What have I done? How terribly angry he was. I did not dream there was such passion in his heart. Oh, I was wrong to taunt and mock him. I only thought he was jealous, and it would be fun to worry him; but he frightened me perhaps I carried it too far. What shall Ido ? " _ _ . _  Her first impulse was to write to Maurice Duval, and let him know that she would not accompany him to the fete the next day, then her natural pride rebelled. "I will not yield to George—he would think his threats had frightened me—and it was not kind of him," she thought. "I will go this once, and then I will dismiss Maurice Duval, and George will forgive me." Still her heart 'Was sorely troubled, as she made her preparations to attend the fete on the morrow, a depression she could not shake off weighed upon her buoyant spirits and marred her pleasure. The jokes and compliments of her companion only wearied her, and she was glad when she was once more at home.  It was moonlight when they returned, and standing at the gate with Maurice Duval while they exchanged a few parting words, Alice saw a dark figure cross the road at a point a few rods away; ere she could distinguish it the shadow of the bordering trees hid it from her eight. She thought little of it then, but afterwards it troubled her; was it not someone lurking by the road-side, watching for another, perhaps? Could it have been George, whose jealousy prompted him to play the spy? Deeper grew her wonder, when on the morrow she received a sealed message from her lover. "Alice,— Your coldness has driven me away. I could not bear to remain and see another win the love I once hoped was mine. I leave this place for ever. But you will never be happy with the iniin who has usurped my place. Farewell for ever.  "