The Winslow mail., 1899-08-17
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES .
s The SandaIWOOd Bracelet 3
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

miss CONSIDINE was the rage that
lVI season; a tall, haughty-looking
gil, with magnificent great dark eyes,
and a torrent of dead-blach hair, which
she was always contriving to wear as
nobody else did, tumbling over her
shoulders cloudily or wreathed about
her small, elegantly-shaped head.
She was a stranger in the town, but
she brought letters of introduction
from people of the highest respectable
ity in the metropolis, and was accom-
panied by staid-looking lady of mid
die age, who always wore pearl-colored
silk and performed chaperon nightly
in an altogether irreproachable man.
ner.
Miss Considine's toilets were artistic
perfection. Her laces were priceless,
said judges; her jewelry dazzled the
eyes of even accustomed uppertendom.
Miss Considine was a mystery, and
the greater sensation, perhaps, for that
very chill whisper which seemed to
thrill in the alr about her, and which
had its foundation in the mere fading
of the beauty's brilliant color, the flick
er of her liquid glance at unexpected
moments, and for no apparent reason.
She was coquette of the first water.
That was discovery early made. She
had a way of looking sidewise through
those long silky lashes of hers that was
infinitely more alluring than level
glance would have been, and the smile
which visited those ruby lips only now
and then was doubly attractive from
its infrequency.
A creature of dangerous graces, she
was what people mean when they call
a woman fatal. 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when her smile was withdrawn.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 a softer dazzle than
her own, and who called himself by the
fascinating title of Count Ludwig Yer
mandorf, presented himself about that
time to compete with the beautiful girl
for her place as sensation of the day.
first, but gradually he too seemed to
be drawn within the circle of her wiles,
yielding with such a reluctant, pensive
grace as clad his radiant face with
new charm. Even Miss Considine
drooped her dangerous eyes with flick
er1Tg -Slush under the tender brilliance
OF the counts smile, and her fingers
la6 in oil
ing the fond, faint pressure of his hand.
Count Ludwig Vermandorf was an as
slduous wooer. Never devotee 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 at 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 word and sooth with a
touch. He never said too much, but al
ways too little. His looks We're elo-
quent of love; his tongue so silent on
that fascinating theme, that the heart
of the naughty beauty grew 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 IOath, though she feigned
reluctance when 1T was first spoken OF
These sitting, from which she hoped
""'l y e. III J J
much, and for which she araped her
perfect shape with every artistic com
bination her rare taste could devise,
proved utter failures as far as her OBJ
ject was concerned.
Whether it 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-
ical bloom, peculiarly hers, had van
ished. Instead was a dusky pallor,
varied by fitful crimson flashes, like the
leap of smoldering flame. Count Lud-
wig had changed also. The soft radi-
ance of his handsome face had turned
to the chill dazzle OF snow peaks; his
smile was like the ice beneath. His blue
eyes were like steel magnets.
1t was as though from this man EN-
anated some deadly creeping influence
which Miss Considine covered before,
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