Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-07-06
THE SANDALWOOD BRACELET

ILL OANDhn IL WI DANI1OAAh
Miss Considine was the rage tina
season; a TALL naughty looking girl
with magnificent great dark eyes, ant
a torrent of dead black hair, which
she was always contriving to wear al
nobody else did, tumbling over hel
shoulders cloudily or wreathed abou
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 &C
companied by staid-looking lady OF
middle age, who always wore pearl
colored silk and performed chaperon
nightly in an altogether irreprOachable
manner.
Miss Considine's toilets were artis-
tic perfection. Her laces were price
less, said judges; her jewelry dazzled
the eyes Of even accustomed upperten-
dom.
Miss Considine was a mystery, and
the greater sensation, perhaps, for that
very chill whisper which seemed to
had its foundation in the mere fading
of the beauty's brilliant color, the
flicker of her liquid glance at uneX-
pected moments, and for no apparent
reason.
She was a coquette of the first wa
ter. 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 rosy
lips only now and then was doubly
attractive from its infrequency.
A creature of dangerous graces, she
was what people mean when they call
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when her smile was withdrawn.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
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 at
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
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 devotee knelt at the shrine Of
his patron saint with more rapt and
untfring devotion than he at the feet
Of Miss Considine. al sae'*s~ 49,
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
FASHIONED moment with a reserve that
continually Knocked and tantalized; to
say one thing and look another, to
sting with a 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
wrlthe 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 ut all loath, though she
feigned reluctance when it was first
spoken Of. l.ssA-s-s'.-s-r>--
yTR9se slttings, 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 IL 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 n dusky pallor,
varied by fitful crimson flashes, like
the leap of a smoldering flame. Count
Ludwig had changed also. The soft
radiance Of his handsome face had
turned to the chill dazzle Of the snow
peaks. His smile was like the ice be-
meath. His blue eyes were like steel
magnets.
1t was as though from this man en-
anated some deadly creeping infu-
ence which Miss Considine covered
before, but could not resist. 1t was
scarcely lover and loved one. 1t
seemed rather the executioner and his
victim.
One night Miss Considine invited a
select few to witness the mysterious
unwilling of the picture about which
there had been such conjecture. A
sensation was expected. The magnifi-
cent drawing-room was ablaze with
light, a-flutter with expectant guests.
The yelled portrait occupied promi-
nent position Mt the lower end Of the
long salon, and thither pressed the
throng, the peerless belle conspicuous