The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1881-10-29
ROSE GERANIUM.
" / hate the odOr

1dJc OI0 OuOI!
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 a large hotel at
one of the fashionable watering places,
and his companion was Mrs. Warburton,
a young and lovely widow. She looked
up into his handsome face with peculiar
glance from under her long, black eye
lashes.
"Why, Mr.. Penryth," she exclaimed
gayly, "what an idea! To hate a
iowerf'
He tried to smile, but it ended in a
failure.
81 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 a child-the odor of rose gera-
mum caused curious sickening sensa-
ton to creep over me. / cannot under
stand it, it is sort of antagon1sm or re-
pulsion, for which I fail to account.
The later"
He paused, and far-away look stole
into his dark eyes, as though recalling
the past; a leaf turned down on some
page of his Iife-history.
had dear friend once" he went
on, after a pause, ga 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-
ceedingl regretted 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 net while travel
ing tor the firm which employed him.
never met Miss Delorme, but I learned
she was the perfection of grace and
beauty; an elegant and accomplished
woman, and withal, 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 blighted his hopes,
and ruined his peace and lured him on
with her false, deceitful smiles, and her
glorious beauty, until he confessed lis
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.
CHOW Miss Delorme's favorite per-
| fume-so Gerald had told me-was rose
| geranium. She wore the flower fire.
quently; its scarlet spikes glowing in
| vivid relief in the braids of her iet-black
| hair. Somehow / came to associate the
two-the woman and the fower-whict
7 so unaccountably disliked, and 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 | 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 take1
his own life!
sit all occurred in the far south,
where he was travelling. / sent at once
for his body-poor, murdered boy II
came. He looked like a marble statue
lying there, white, cold and dead, his
hands folded over his heart that had bea-
with true and faithful love for the
woman who was the cause of all this
4 a, IL r
spray of rose geranium; / 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 and weak in me; if so, con
fess my weakness, but Icannot resistit.
He passed and rested his hand
some head on one white, SHAPED,
hand. Harry Penryth was young an,
; wealthy, and many woman had en-
, deavored to awaken a responsive Choir,
in his heart. But, although he move,
in gay society and was courteous to all
and attentive to some, no woman ha
ever really touched his heart until he ha
met with sweet Lily Moreton. Blu
Ethel Warburton, the richyoung widow
loved him with a most wild, absorbin
passion which carried everything befor
il. The crafty Mrs. Warburton 500
discovered that there was no engage
; ment existing between Miss Moreto
I and Mr.. Penryth, and racked her brai
y for some method of Disseminating til
young man, and turning his love fc
| Lily into aversion and dislike.
While Harry Penryth related the stor
: of his friend and his tragic death, Mr.
Warburton's face had grown very whit
> a wild, haunted look stole into her eye
:. and the little hand which held sprig
i the obnoxious rose geranium was lC
: cold and trembled.
: She threw the flower away.