Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-18

! glass and the young man threw him
! self on the bed, sobbing; for it was
the morning after Vandraken had at
tended the meeting of the Devil
may-Care Club.
CHAPTER XIV.
OF the crowd of women who glitter
| in that slow parade of four-wheeled
: life which flows like an exotic river
| through the Bots de Boulogne, there
| is always one to whom the other wom-
en- render an unwilling homage of at
| tention. 1t may take the form of I'M
pleasant remark, or envious remark,
or frankly admiring remark-that is
a detail; the point is, that on her last
daring innovation in dress, millinery,
or turnout, all eyes are focused Well
gloved hands gesticulate the story,
struggling shoulders receive it, plume
mods to plume in confirmation of it;
the story of how it was achieved, the
daring of the strokes which carried
her from the mud in the bed of the
stream to its dazzling surface.
But little month ago a cab, a
taximeter cab!"
Surely, only last month little one
horse victoria"
"And then the second horse!"
"And now the footman!"
With each change of turnout anoth-
er name is mentioned. A richer man
has outbid her former friend, till he,
in turn, is outbid.
This year, the woman at whom ev-
eryone looked was Veeda Venestra,
surnamed the Cobra, because of her
small, fiat head and supernaturally
black hair, brooding low on her fore
head. She always wore minute hat,
also fiat, with a black ostrich plume,
fitting close to her head, as nearly
resembling, as millinery could make it
cobra's head. Her eyes were mar
row, but curiously glittering when the
slow lids lifted. Her features were
cut out of some dusky-white substance
in blunted design The only really
beautiful thing about her was per-
fectly shaped mouth, the carmine of
the lips owing nothing to art.
The Venestra had first attracted at
tention by appearing at Laxime' s
d'Armenonville-wh it was adj
visable to be seen, and always alone.
No man ever shared her table, and no
woman. She would sit, eating slowly,
and looking mysteriously wicked in
deed Black and yellow were always
the REVEALING notes in her dress, rubies
were the Jewels she affected, set out
with just enough diamonds to make
them show.
Sometimes man had been known
to sit down amicably at her table She
would look at him across it with half
closed eyes, leaning her chin on the
back of her hand, waiting for him to
speak. Slowly the curtains of white
skin and black lashes would roll up,
till the man was gazing into her wide
open eyes--then he would start back,
with the sound men make when the
bath is much too hot or much too cold
stammer an apology, and get out of
her line of vision; and over the eyes
the curtain would fall again.
An American who had, most jauntily
sat down opposite her, came away
with pale face, and declared he had
looked right down into hell And yet
the men who had looked into Veeda
Venestra's eyes were of a kind whom
ordinary wickedness would attract as
strongly and would veeda's sinuous
| figure, which also carried out the sug-
gestion Of the snake.
There had been discussions as to
what quality it was in the Cobra
which sent men shuddering from her
table. The American excused his de-
| feat ON the grounds that she seemed
to demand higher standard of wick
edness than he was prepared to sup
| ply. A Frenchman decided that it did
not do for woman to take vice too
seriously; she must be prepared to
pour out exactly the measure the man
calls for, whether the vintage demand
ed be vice or virtue. All decided that
their sensations had been those of a
man who has seen yelled woman
whom he thinks TO be beautiful, has
made love to her till he coaxes her to
| lift her veil, and then sees some hor-
ror of disagreement
And yet, as far as anyone could
prove to the contrary, Veeda Venestra
was a virtuous woman. Investigation
| revealed the fact that no man had
ever been seen to come OF go from her
little fiat Everywhere where WON
en- showed themselves she showed her
self 1t was certain that she would
| take afternoon tea at the Elysee
Palace, but she was never seen in the
American bar. 1t was just as certain
that she would be seen later driving uL
the Champs Elysees in her own neat
little victoria, to join in the stream in
the Bois-aIways alone, and busy with
her own thoughts. In the evening she
might be the sole occupant of a box
at the opera or the theatre.
The more that curiosity and
mystery gathered around her, the
greater grew her fame. During brief