Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1905-09-06
THE BROKEN IDOL

as q rule, ana as pretty aS she 1du any
need to be. But she was of a 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 a little
velum bound volume entitled FLAMES
of Passion" She picked it up, looked at
the frontispiece, read 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, a singu
larry handsome type-tall, clean shaver,
muscular, with magnificent eyes. Conse
quently, 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 eaton he-tiies order,
calculated to stra-n 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 understand,
which was good for the author.
There was a little preface which Dora
examined with greatest care. 1t sug-
gested a dark past and other interesting
things, and it gave the authors private
address, This was house with Japa
nese name which | am quite unable to
SPELL but that matters less, as even if [
could spell it you would be quite 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 advantage, as anybody who lives
there will tell you, of being very handy.
There could be 10 harm in writing to
tell an author how much one appreciated
his work. Dora had almost decided upon
the step when the almost excessive handi-
ness of Croydon made q frantic and sue
cessful appeal to her She went to CrOy-
don 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 gov
erness, being fully aware at the time
that her old governess had been called to
her eternal rest some three months pre-
viously.
It was really most extraordinary
thing Nobody at the station had ever
heard of Hector Leroy or of the house
with the japanese name. The policeman
did not know it, even postmen disclaimed
all knowledge. Dora began to think that
culture III CroyGon was in a bad way.
She lost herself in a tangle of back
streets; rows of mean little houses de-
pressed her In desperation she stopped
a 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 a house be-
fore 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
frock coat, without collar, tie or waist
coat, was engaged in the simple act of
taking in the milk. Him Dora APP
preached.
rs Mr. Hector Leroy at homer" she
asked
Great Scott!'' said the man. Yes
he added. Wont you walk in ?"
They entered dirty room with a 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 sat down abruptly and said faint
ly that she saw.
"The same thing with the photo" went
on Mr.. Bum cheerfully. "The one I've
got in the book is {, Iair Knockout It's
really the photo of a chap who got
lynched for horsestealing in Texas. But
it struck me that he looked just the kind
of man to write that kind of thing Not
bad idea, was it?''
Dora murmured that it was very clever
and looked at her watch.
tits made the book go,' said the old
man. ''We've done 800 copies actually
sold OF course [ don't do that sort of
thing for a living. Pm employed in some
chemical manure works. But you were
wanting to see me about something, |
suppose?"
Nothing whatever" said Dora, with
sudden energy, and ran as it had been for
her life.
The old man looked puzzled, observed
to himself that it was a funny game,
and resumed his preparations for tea
Dora had a bad accident with her copy
of FLAMES of Passion when she re-
turned. 1t got a good deal burned; in
fact, it was all burned-Barry Pain in
the Taller