The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1913-10-03

a Story Showing the Pow
er Of Beauty Without
Conscience For
Evil
By F. A. mitchell

youth OF fifteen, while hunting rode up
to peasants cottage on his fathers
estate in Russia to ask for drink of
water. A little girl, not more than
seven years Of age. stood in the door
looking up at him with the mild blue
eye Indigenous to northern climates.
Her hair. too, was of light hue. but
her cheeks were pair Of roses. AS
she looked at the young man her face
broke into q smile. revealing white
teeth. while dimple appeared in each
cheek. Alexis forgot about the drink
Of water, so enraptured was he in the
beauty of the child.
"Laisw he exclaimed.
The girl continued to look at him
and, Notwithstanding her few years,
perceived that she was admired.
do you know" he asked, "why /
call you Lais?'
"No"
II will tell you. More than 400 years
before our Saviour came upon earth
an Athenian general captured pic
turesQue village on the island of Sicily.
Among his prisoners was a little girl
about your age. so bewitchingly beau
tiful that he carried her back with him
to Athens, where a great artist painted
her as a nymph at fountain, and all
the great men of the time were enrap-
tured with her."
did they give her pretty presents?"
asked the child.
Alas! Underneath all this beauty
turks the viper-the desire to use the
charms to obtain pretty presents"
One day the child might not only Sc
cure the presents. but ruin those who
gave them to her.
This was the first meeting between
Alexis Alexandrovich, the son Of Count
Alexandrovich, Russian nobleman,
who dwelt, as his ancestors had dwelt
before him, on his estate, kind mas
ter to his serfs and humble subject
Of the car. The boy received q cup
OF water from the child, and as she
handed 1t up to him he noticed the
beautiful shape of the arm and hand
that extended it. And as tender as
were her years out of her eyes came a
hoVh W Shuh ne idukutu IUdl
one so young should show such a dis
position and rode away. leaving the
child gazing after him.
Alexis, who was studying at the
time to enter the university, found
when he returned to his books that the
face and figure of the child kept thrust
ing themselves between his eyes and
the page before him. AS soon as his
school hours were ended he went again
to the peasants cottage. making ex-
cuse this time that be wished to bor-
row from her father a gup with which
to shoot birds. The man was intent
on the matter of the gun, but his wife
noticed that Alexis had not come for
gun. but to feast his eyes on her lit.
tie daughter. After Alexis had gone
she said to her husband:
II foresee great things for our Katia
Such beauty must elevate her to
higher rank than ours. Did you notice
the admiration in the eyes of the young
countT
mo"
"It was plain to me. He will come
here at times to gaze at her, and If her
beauty holds when she comes to won.
anhood he will marry her, and, instead
of spending her days in this hut, she
will live up on the hill and be a coun-
tess"
Many were the excuses Alexis made
to see his Lais, as he called her. Now
it was fishing tackle, now his horse
needed a shoe-for the peasant was a
smith-but whatever it was he wanted
his eyes never left the child while he
was at her fathers place, and Lais
knew that she had made her first cap
tive When Christmas came and
brought with it a little ring from Alex
is she gave the kiss he asked for. but
after he went away her young brOws
knit. and, her mother asking her if she
was dissatisfied with her gift. she
pouted and replied:
Eyes. There is no gem in It."
Alexis went to the university; but.
though he left his father, his mother
and his home behind him, he could not
leave his Lais. Those innocent eyes.
that deicately rounded face, those ex-
quisitely curved lips that seemed form
ed only TO be KISSED, were present III
his memory and in his thoughts dur
ing his absence, and each year when
he returned she had grown year old
er, and instead of losing her childish
beauty there was added to it that or
a budding womanhood.
And now the countess had learned
the secret that her son was infatuated
with a peasants daughter. Realizing
that such passion could not be eradi-
Gated by argument, she said nothing to
him, but arranged with her husband to
send Alexis away as soon as he was
graduated from the university. The
count went to st. Petersburg and OBJ
tanned government position for his
boy. But, alas. 1t came too late. The
day the appointment arrived Alexis In
formed his parents that he had mar
ried the blacksmiths daughter.
There was nothing for it but to ac-
cent the situation. Alexis assured his
father and mother that his wife's beau
~ would gain her an entrance into
INV society. An elaborate wardrobe