SHOULD SHE HAVE SPOKEN?

Otago Witness, Issue 2428, 26 September 1900, Page 70

SHOULD SHE HAVE SPOKEN?

By'ESTHEE MI'LLEE. London: Ward, Lock, and Co. Dunedin: ( Whitcombe and Tombs. i A most sensational stcry of an Innocent bigamist, a Villain of the deepest dye, a young jind vivackms Authoress, a wretched Murderer, and a beautiful Victim! The story opens ,with the eve of a. wedding day at an hotel in the Alps. " 'i?he sunset still lingered in heavenly tones of mauve and rose. . . . on the bench outside the open door of the hotel ' sat a man and a girl. He was young and she was beautiful, and hi 3 arm was round Jier waist." - Presently the diligence from •Aiidematt arrives. The bride has gone indoors, the bridegroom stands idly watching 'vhe passengers descent in the twilight. Juijian, standing by the steps, tossed the end of 3iig cigar away. And then a woman descended from the coupe. Tho lamplight f-hone 'full on her /ace. It was his wife come back from the grave ! There was a sound like the gob of a lost soul in the darkness " — etc., etc. If- open's well, you will confess, plunging ftt once into the very heart of joy mid grief, Ocmptatiov), desire, a frantic crescendo of emotions,. Julian's fir^l wife, whom he believed long dead, ha-> c\ ldenlly followed him. up v.i lh deliberate intonLioii — this was no clianco

meeting, for in a note which he presently receives from her, she makes an appointment with him for an interview later on. At this interview it would appear that Mrs Julian I No. 1 is quite willing to relinquish her long ! disused rights to Mrs Julian No. 2 in consideration of a certain sum of money, cash down. Julian announces a somewhat more tragic solution of the position which is trying to both. His thoughts fly to the beautiful victim, the innocent girl-bride who awaits his return at the little inn ; and he informs Mrs Julian Now I—-.vhom1 — -.vhom we may for brevity refer to as the Fiend- —^that he intends to murder her. The Fiend steps back and loses her footing. Julian gloats over her, but presently saves her. In the morning, however, the hotel inmates are horrified by the news of the murder of an English lady who arrived by the last night's diligence from Andematt. Julian confesses to the beautiful Victim that the murdered Fiend was his wife, whom he had decided last night to murder himself, had not the remembrance of the beautiful Victim saved him, from crime ! By tho end of the fifth chapter the beaxitiful Victim has gone home to her mother, having left Julian xfor ever, fully convinced that though he may indeed have been an innocent bigamist, he is a guilty murderer. There ere 37 chapters in the book. Already quite blase with emotion we are ready to believe them all as rich in thrilling incident as those we have read. We merely observe that despite the efforts of a number of excellent persons, including the young and vivacious Authoress, it is only in the last chapter that the ""villain of the deepest dye" is discovered and unveiled, and the wretched Julian restored to the arms of the beautiful Victim.