The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1905-11-09
THE BROKEN IDOL.

1
| Dora Virginia Brook was good girl
as rule, and as pretty as she had any
need to be. But she was of romantic
| disposition. Therefore it was a great
pity that, being in the book department
of the stores with her dear mamma,
her eye should have lighted upon lit
tie vellum-bound volume entitled,
| FLAMES OF Passion" She picked it up,
looked at the frontispiece, read a verse
or two, and said, Il will take this
What for?" said her dear mamma.
| Il don't know" said the girl-which
was quite untrue.
She had bought it because she was
greatly interested in the portrait of the
author. which formed the frontispiece
| He was depicted on horseback, singu-
larly handsome type-tall, clean-shav-
en-, muscular, with magnificent eyes.
| Consequently when Dora Virginia
| Brook came to read those poems she
found that they were very good and
| lovely.
| AS a matter of fact, the verses were
| about OF the usual badness, as most
verses are They were full of passion,
| somewhat Of the cat-on-the-tiles order,
| calculated to strain the upper register
! of the thermometer, and they would
! have been quite unsuited to Miss Brook
If Miss Brook had realized what they
meant. But she did not, which was
| good for her; and women adore most
| that which they do not completely un-
| derstand, which was good for the au-
! thor.
There was a little preface which Dora
examined with greatest care. 1t sug-
| gested dark past and other interest
ing things, and it gave the authors
| private address. This was house with
| a Japanese name which | am quite un
able to spell, but that matters less, as
even II | could spell it you would be
| quiet unable to pronounce it. The
house was situated in Croydon, which
seemed to Dora to be all wrong. On
the other hand, Croydon has the ad
vantage, as anybody who lives there
will tell you, Of being very handy.
There could be no harm in writing to
tell an author how much one appreciat-
ed his work. Dora had almost decided
upon the step when the almost eXces-
sive hardness of Croydon made fran
tic and successful appeal to her. She
went to Croydon in the afternoon,
which was quite wrong of her, and |
deeply regret to add that she told her
mother that she was going down there
TO see her old governess, being fully
aware that her old governess had been
called to her eternal rest some three
months prviously.
1t was really a most extraordinary
thing. Nobody at the station had ever
heard of Hector Leroy or CT the house
with the Japanese name The police
man did not know it, even postmen
disclaimed all knowledge Dora began
to think that culture in Croydon was
in bad way. She lost herself in a
tangle of back streets; rows of mean
little houses depressed her In desper-
alton she stopped bakers boy, showed
him the name of the house written
down and asked if he could direct her.
why, there it is bitin yer" he said
1t was, indeed, as he had intended to
imply, the dirty little pig of house
before which she was standing. The
name was painted on the fanlight and
some of the paint had come off, The
front door was open and an elderly
gentleman in a black coat, without coll
lar, tie, or waistcoat, was engaged in
the simple act of taking in the milk
Him Dora approached
us Mr.. Hector Leroy at homer" she
asked.
Great Scott" said the man. Yes"
he added. Wont you wa in?"
They entered dirty room with lit
tered writing table.
"You see, said the elderly man, I'm
not often called by that name My real
names Peter Bum. You can't stick
that on title page, you know"
Dora saw down abruptly and said,
family, tnat she saw.
THE same thing with the photo"
went on Mr.. Bum, cheerfully "The
one I've got in the book is fair
Knockout. It's really the photo of
chap who got lynched for horse-steal-
ing in Texas But it struck me that he
looked just the kind of man to write
that kind of thing Not a bad idea,
was it?'
Dora murmured that it was very clev-
er and looked at her watch.
Its made the book co. said the old
man. We've done 300 copies actually
sold. Of course, don't do that sort of
thing for living. I'm employed in
some chemical manure works. But you
were wanting to see me about some
thing, / suppose?"
Nothing whatever" said Dora, with
sudden energy, and ran as it had been