The true Democrat., 1855-01-03
MORNING, JANUARY 3, 1855.

homage which young beauty can always com mand in society were not enough for Isabel- Her vanity was not to be satisfied by any ordi- nary sacraice. She required her admirers to become lovers, and an offer of marriage could alone be received as sufficient evidence of her power.
 At the time I first entered society she had already rejected many suitors and it was one ot her favorite pastimes to gather few of her young friends around her, while she carelessly tossed over for our inspection copies of verses, blllet-doux letters, and other testimonials to the power of her beauty.
 If there be anything which ought to expose woman to lasting contempt, it is such an un- pardonable breach of confidence as that ill which Isabel indulged. Isabes tact in "playing her victim" was unequalled. While she never de- parted from her quiet manner, she yet managed to adapt herself so well to ths peculiar charac- ter of her admirers, that each believed her to be studying his tastes and moulding herself to his standard of reflection. Then she was a matchless man@uvrer in the arrangement of time and place for securing her prize. In the gay party and amid the excitement of mirth, the snare was laid for the frivoloua-the moon- light walk and the Vaccinations of sentiment were lures for the enthusiastic-th quiet house. hold circle, and the rational pleasures of home were traps for her more practical admirers.
 Isabel had reached her twenty-fourth year, without having formed any, attachment likely to end soberly and ratonally in marriage, when she became engaged in filtration which proved more serious in the end than slle had designed Somebody, have forgotten who, introduced to our acquaintance a young man who bore the name of Thad. Gray, and said to be the son of arich West Indian His delicate health, which had been seriously injured by grief for the re cent loss of his mother, had induced his father, who doated on him with love ealmostapproach- ing to idolatry, to send him off on visit in the hope that change of scene and the bracing air of cooler climates might restore him. This was all we knew of him, and as he brought letters from well-known mercantile house in Jamaica, and appeared to have almost unlimited command of money, we had no reason to doubt the truth of the statement. Thad. Gray was not more than twenty one years of age; small, slender and pale, with nothing to attract atten- ton III his personal appearance, except pair ot dark luminous eyes, which seemed to glcam with almost supernatural brightness from be- meath his overhangiug broWs His character seemed as feeble as his physical nature. Pos sessed of highly poetic temperament, and a morbid seusibility, which led him to pour forth his exaggerated feelings in verse, he was yet ut terly deficient in the higher attributes of genius, which alone could give him rank amongst the gifted sons of song. But bred up in strict re- tircment, beneath the eve of fond mother, his studies directed by one of the most un- worldly scholiasts that ever wore q priests cowl, and his selt-es;eem exaggerated by the love of his father, he had learned to consider himself l Nf, OrIo Hi- tO h own personal defects and his belief ill his own unappreciated superiority, gave degree of awkwardness in his demeanor which often ex- posed him to the ridicule of his associates
 But unprepossessing as were his manners and appearance, he was not too insignificant for Isabel's rapacous desire of conquest. Her superior knowledge of the world gave her de- cided advantage over the unpracticed boy, and she did not fail to avail herself of it. We were in the habit, at that time, of passing a part of every summer at B., and when we left town, Thad. Gray was so far infatuated with his beautiful Mistress, as to follow us and take lodgings in our immediate neighborhood. Here Isabel had full license to rvet her chains upon her romantic admirer. His guilelessncss of character rendered her task an easy one. and she found but little difficulty in adapting her
 
 earnest admirer of poetry, passionate lover of the pursuits of literature, deplored her wasted time, and amented her want of talent and all this, with an inimitable grace, which could not fail to captvate the senses of the shy and sen- stive bov Thad. soon became the devoted slave of Isabel and she spared no opportunity of exacting his homage. She loved to express the most omr6 and extravagant desires only that she might observe the readiness with which his wealth was squandered at the slight est wish. Isabel used moreover to take his delicatelv written verses with extreme gracious ness, read them, with apparent feeling, and place them in her bosom until the delighted boy de- parted. when she would withdraw them from their conceament and make them the subject of many merry jest, as she threw the paper into her desk, that onan5um gatherm of love tokens and letters.
 When Isabel returned to the city, she carried Thad, as if "chained to her chariot wheels;;" and itseemed to afford herinfnite qualification to expose him to the raillery of her less sensitive lovers But Thad. had wooed her in the lan- cuage of song, and he now demanded in plain prose an answer to his suit, scarcely doubling that it would ensure his future happiness What was his surprise, therefore, when he met with aprompt and decided refusal? Half mad dened by such an unexpected downfall of his hopes, the passionate boy poured forth the most earnest entreaties which were coldly and al- most insultingly checked. A torrent of re- breaches, such as could only issue from bitter ly outraged heart, now burst from his lips and the response was a series of those keen and cutting sarcasms which sometimes have power to sever the very heart strings. He went out from her presence in a state of mind almost ap- preaching to insanity. Too weak minded to struggle manfully against the bangs which as sailed him, unsupported by that moral courage, which can teach brave man to endure life even in the midst of torture-dreading the ridicule and modification to which she had threatened to expose him by means of his passionate verses, and conscious how entirely he had put 1t in her power to make him a mark for the finger of scom among the volatile foplings of the day, he madly threw away his life. The morning after he parted with Isabel he was found dead in his room An empty vial on his table, and the sickly ordor mparted by the deadly drug, alone told the manner of his death. Nothing was found which could give a clue to the cause