Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-10-26
ROSE GERANIUM.
sc I hate the OdOr"


Harry Penryth dropped the tiny spray
of rose geranium which he held, and a
shudder crept over him. 1t was on the
wide, cool verandah of large hotel at
one of the fashionable watering places,
and his companion was Mrs Warburton,
young and lovely widow. She looked
up into his handsome face with peculiar
glance from under her long, black eye
iashes.
"Why, Mr.. Penryth," she exclaimed
gayly, "what an idea To hate a
tlowert'
He tried to smile, but it ended in a
failure.
.sI will tell you, Mrs. Warburton, he
answered, "and then, perhaps, you will
understand me better. In the first
place, ever since can remember-even
when child-the odor of rose gera-
mum caused curious sickening sensa-
ton to creep over me. / cannot under
stand it; it is a sort of antagon1sm or re-
pUlsion, for which [ fail to account
The later"
He paused, and a far-away look stole
into his dark eyes, as though recalling
the past; leaf turned down on some
page of his life-history.
L udu u0tI lie went
on, after a pause, fa dear friend-I
never had another Gerald Brookes and
/ were like brothers; modern editions of
Damon and Pythias they used to call us
In the college where we were educated.
/ had no hopes or aspirations apart from
Gerald; and his interests were as dear to
me as my own. Nothing could hurt him
which did not hurt me. | regretted ex-
ceedingly-regrettedw with a strange pang
of jealousy-when at last, in the course
of events, Gerald fell in love- The lady
was one whom he had met while travel
ing tor the firm which employed him. [
never met Miss Delorme, but learned
she was the perfection of grace and
beauty; an elegant and accomplished
woman, and w1thal, an arrant coquette.
She was heartless and unprincipled, an
set about breaking my friends heart,
coolly, deliberately and Systematically.
Mrs. Warburton, that woma was as GER
tainly the murderer of Gerald Brookes
as though she had slain him with her
own hand, for she bighted his hopes,
and ruined his peace and lured him on
with her false, deceitful smiles, and her
glorious beauty, until he confessed his
love and cast his heart, his great, noble,
manly heart, at her feet, only to be
laughed at and told scornfully that she
was on the eve of marriage with de-
crepit old millionaire.
"Now Miss Delorme's favorite per-
fume-so Gerald had told me-was rose
geranium. Sne wore the flower fire.
quently; its scarlet spikes glowing in
vivid relief In the braids of her jet-bIack
hair. Somehow [ came to associate the
tWO-the woman and the hower-which
so unaccountably disliked, and a feel
ing sprang up IN my heart for Miss
Delorme which grew and hourished like
the blossom itself-a feeling of strong
aversion.
''And so time passed, and poor Ger
aid was daily fed with false hopes and il
lusions until at last the blow fell. Had
been IN his place when the knowledge
of her baseness came to me [ should
have spurned her as I would a noxious
reptile from my path; but Gerald was
not made of as stern stuff as [ am, and
SO he could not recover from the shock.
Oh Mrs. Warburton, it was an awful
blow to me when they told me the dread
full truth that Gerald Brookes had taken
his own lifei
cit all occurred in the far south,
where lie was travelling L sent at once
for his body-poor, murdered boy! 1t
came. He looked like marble statue
lying there, white, cold and dead, his
hands folded over his heart that had beat
with true and faithful love for the
woman who was the cause of all this,
and clasped in his dead hands found a
spray of rose geranium; I tore it from
his grasp; I could not see his body
desecrated by anything she had touched
or cared for. From that hour have
hated the odor and sight of the blossom
with greater intensity than ever. 1t may
be childish md weak In me; If SO, [ con-
fess my weakness, but I cannot resist it. y
He passed and rested his hand
some head on one white, shapely
hand. Harry Penryth was young and
wealthy, and many woman had en-
deavored to awaken responsive chord
In his heart. But, although he moved
in gay society and was courteous to all
and attentive to some, no woman had
ever really touched his heart mil he had
met with sweet Lily Moreton. But
Ethel Warburton, the rich young widow,
loved him with a most wild, absorbing
passion which carried everything before
If. The crafty Mrs Warburton soon
discovered that there was no engage
ment existing between Miss Moreton
and Mr.. Penryth, and raczed her brain
for some method of Disseminating the
young man, and turning his love for
Lily into aversion and dislike.
While Harry Penryth related the story