The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1900-06-09
~o ISIS CoNsIDINE was the rage

~ looking girl, with magnificent
great dark eyes, and a torrent of dead
black hair, which she was always con-
irving to wear as nobody else did, tum-
bling over her shoulders cloudily or
,wreathed about her small, elegantly
shaped head.
She was a stranger in the town, but
sshe brought letters of introduction from
people of the highest responsibility IN
the metropolis, and was accompanied
gby staid-looking lady of middle-age,
who always wore pearl-colored silk and
performed chaperon nightly in an alto
Qether irreproachable manner.
Miss Considine's toilets were artistic
,perfection. Her laces were priceless,
said Judges; her jewelry dazzled the
ewes 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 air about her, and when
had it's 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 wa
ter. That was discovery early made.
She had way of looking sideways
through those long silky lashes OF hers
that was infinitely more alluring than
a level glance would have been, and
the smile which visited those rosy lips
only now and then was doubly at
4ractive from it's 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when her smile was withdrawn.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-haire 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 a reluctant, pensive
grace as clad his radiant face with a
new charm. Even Miss Considine
dropped her dangerous eyes with a
pickering blush under the tender bril-
Nance of the Counts smile, and her fin
gers tremDled 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 untiring devotion
than he at the feet of Miss Considne.
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 a word and sOothe with
touch. He never said too much, but al
ways too little. His looks were 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 loath, though she feigned
reluctance when it was first spoken of.
These sittings, from which she hoped
much, and for which she draped her
perfect shape with every artistic COM
binatiOn her rare taste could devise.
proved utter failures as far as her OBJ
5ect 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 greatly. All that rich tropical
bloom, peculiarly hers, had vanished.
Instead was dusky pallor, varied by
htful 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 snow peaks; his smile was
like the Ice beneath. His blue eyes
were like steel magnets.
1t was as though from this man ema-
mated some deadly creeping influence
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 invfted a