Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-09-05
TRANSLATED BY LEW VA NDERPooLE.

Verai For ten years she has been dead l.,
get l still shudder whenever 1 hear her
dreadful name spOken-and my hand
'trembles even now, as | write 1t. tully
believe, having known her, that some OF
the daughters of Eve still partake, as
preachers say, of the nature OF the SER
peut; and that in their veins still burns
the awful poison of that bitter fruit which
forever quenched, silenced and dimmed
Ia Eden the glorles, spleen doris and melo-
dies of heaven. There was, too, in Vera,
astrong faint of Tartar blOod-though |
doubt if she would have been less cruel
and heartless without it. A more mag
nIhcent woman, physically and mentally,
no one ever saw, and no man, am sure
except the saVage-could resist the music
of her voice, the magic Of her laughter, or
the almost unnaturally undulant grace of
heI very movement. In this last particu-
lar she was so remarkably 1.-the, plant
and willowy that her rivals often swOre
that she was some dangerou and terrible
serpent, changed into woman by the
freak Of some wantony playful god. At
FIRST | used to smile when this was said,
but the time afterward came when my
smiles ceased and i more than half be-
lieved.
My father, for many years a quiet and
unimpOTtant politician, was finally re-
warded TOR wasting the most of his life
and income by being made Minister TO
Russia. 1t was there that | frat saw
Vera, and being, as was, mere child, u
little White-faced and yellow haired thing
of 10. was daZed with her magnificence
and worshiped her almost at sight. |
think that my soul went out to her at the
first kiss my lips received from her beau
tiful mouth; any wav, her great, dancing.
black eyes always held me subject to her
viii. IL has been said so often that il has
become proyerb, that never, Tor strictly
feminine reasons, can there be strong.
true, disInterested frier dship between
women, and that no woman, except she Is
very old, can ever be unee!f shly fond of
any other woman. But this know to be
false. for loved Vera better than loved
my soul. better even than loved my God.
My love for her passed really into the
most biased and Dlgoted idOlatry. Meet
Ing her changed me from a soft, gentle,
girllsh thing, whom every one could
sway andfbend, into a spiteful, vixenish
creature of impulse-bitter against
every one who dared speak ill OF her. She
WIRE my all-heaven, earth, universe. /
even gave up my lover TO her without any
4NNhuS vi icsSutLubub LOWdIQ ueF. w liz
fully and peTsistently were my ears kept
shut against the frightiul things which
were justly said OF her, until, having
yObbed and cheated me OF everything else
that loved and valued, she attempted to
destroy my life. Then, and only then,
did my blind idOlatry end. Then, too,
strangely enough, the manner of nv old
life, all gentleness and modest timidity,
came back to me, and all my ferceness
aud peryersity-marking, as 1t did, the
whole of my association with her-went
out OF me as candle fame goes out in
strong draugnt OF wind. Twas once more
my normal, natural self, and shrunk from
even my memories OF her as If they had
been succession of horrid nightmares.
Years before either her birth or mine
Der father had been connected with the
Russian Consular Office in Paris, ana IL
was there that he and my father became
acquaintances first, and then warm
friends. So 1t is quite natural that my
father. on his arrival in RUSSIA as French
Minister, should be welcomed most
heartily by bis friend of yore. He in
Nited US to become mem bers OF his house,
hold, aud my parents eagerly aud CRATE
iully accepted the Invitation.