Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-07-12
The SANDALWoOD BRACELET


season; IL tall, naughty looking girl
with magnificent great dark eyes, and
n torrent of dead black hair, which
she was always contriving to wear as
nobody else did, tumbling over her
shoulders cloudily or wrcathed about
her small, elegantly shaped head.
She was stranger in the town, but
She brought letters of introduction
from people of the highest respecta-
bility in the metropolis, and was ac-
companied by a staid-loolling lady of
middle age, who always wore pearl
colored silk and performed chaperon
nightly in an altogether irreproacllable
manner,
Miss Considinc's toilets We're artis-
tic perfection. Her laces were price
less, said judges; her jcwelry dazzled
the eyes of even accustomed uppertcn-
dom.
Miss Considine was mystery, and
the greater sensation, perhaps, for that
very chill whisper which seemed to
thrill in the air about her, and which
had its foundation i'll the mere fading
of the beauty's brilliant color, the
flicker of her liquid glance ut unex-
pected moments, and for no apparent
reason.
She was a coquette of the first wa
ter. That was a discovery early made.
She had a way of looking sidcwise
through those long, silky lashcs of
hers that was infinitely more alluring
than n level glance would have been,
and the smile which visited those rosy
lips only now and then was doubly
attractive from its infrequency.
A creature of dangerous grnces, she
was what people mean when they call
q woman fatnl. Men imagined heaven
in her glance. and counted that lost
when her smile was withdrawn.
My Lady Dangerous met her match.
however, toward the close of the sea
son. A yellow-haired German. whose
azure glance had n softer dazzle than
her own, and who called himself by
the fascinating title of Count Ludwig
Vermandorf, presented himself about
that time to compete with the beauti-
full girl for her place as sensation of
the day.
He was shy of Miss Considine mt
first, but gradually he too seemed to
be drawn within the circle of her
wiles, yielding with such reluctant,
pensive grace as clad his radiant face
with n new charm. Even Miss Con
sidine dropped her dangerous eyes
with Pickering blush under the
tender brilliance of the counts smile,
and her fingers trembled in his clasp,
instead of resenting the fond. faint
pressure of his hand. Count Ludwig
Vermandorf was an assiduous wooer.
Never devotce knelt at the shrine of
his patron saint with more rapt and
untiring devotion than he at the feet
of Miss Considine.
1t was not new to the coquettish
beauty to be sought humbly. But this
man was her master, even ut her own
game.
He knew how to clothe his most i'm
passioned moment with a reserve that
continually Knocked and tantalized; to
say one thing and look another. to
sting with n word and soothe with a
touch. He never said too much, but
always too little. His looks were elo-
quent of love; his tongue so silent on
that fascinating theme, that the heart
of the naughty beauty began to fairly
writhe within her with mingled pain
and anger.
Count Ludwig was an artist of some
talent, and he insisted that he must
paint Miss Considine's portrait. She
was not at all loath, though she
feigned reluctance when it was first
spoken of.
These sittings. from which she had
hoped much, and for which she draped
her perfect shape with every artistic
combination her rare taste could de-
wise, proved utter failures as far as
her object was concerned.
Whether 1t was the same with Count
Ludwig remains to be seen. He would
permit no one, not even the beautiful
subject, to look upon his picture while
it remained incomplete.
Miss COnsidine, since her acquaint-
ance with the fascinating count, had
changed strangely. All that rich trop-
tcal bloom, peculiarly hers, had van
ished. Instead was n dusky pallor,
varied by titful crimson flashes, like
the leap Of a smoldering flame. Count
Ludwig had changed also. The soft
radiance of his handsome face had
turued to the chill dazzle of the snow
peaks. His smile was like the ice be-
meath. His blue eyes We're like steel
magnets.
1t was as though from this man en-
anated some deadly creeping influ-
ence which Miss Considlne covered
before, but could not resist. 1t was
scarcely lover and loved one. 1t
seemed rather the executioner and his
victim.
One night Miss Considinc invited a
select few to witness the mysterious
unwilling Of the picture about which
there had been such conjecture. A
sensation was expected. The magniti-
cent drawing-room was ablaze with
light, a-flutter with eXpcctanr guests.
The yelled portrait occupied promi-
nent position at the lower end of the
long salon, and thither pressed the
throng. the peerless belle conspicuous
upon the arm of the artist, Count Lud-
Wig.
Both were pale, but the count smiled
right and left, dazzling. The beauty
was grave and SILENT watching the
man upon whose arm she leaned fur
lively, and with half-foreboding
look in her liquid black eyes. From
time to time she pressed one jewelled
hand stealthily upon her side, as if to
still the throbbing of the stormy heart
beneath, while she continually ques.
toned herself:
''Vhy do ! fear7 What Is th!s terror