The Caucasian., 1910-04-24

eSI guest VIII Il hist S-it'N Va p='>N
hospitality, a hectic. haggard. perfume
tory welcome like tie specious smile
of a demirep. The SophiStical comfort
came in reflected CLEANS from the de-
cayed furniture, the ragged brocade
upholstery of couch and two chaifS.
foot wide cheap pier glass between
the two windows, from one or two gilt
picture frames and Il brass bedstead
in a corner.
The guest rec!ined. inert, upon a
chair. while the room. confused in
speech as though it were an apart
ment in Babel. tried to discourse te
him Of its divers tenantry.
A polychromatic rug like some bril-
liant Powered rectangular, tropical is
let lay surrounded by billoWy sea
of soiIed mating. Upon the gay papered
wall were those pictures that pursue
the homeless one from house to house
''The Huguenot Lovers, 1.-The First
Quarrel The Wedding Breakfast.
Psyche al the Fountain" The manteis
chastely severe outline was inglorious-
drawn rakishly askew like the sashes
of the amazonian ballet. Upon it was
some desolate fiotsam cast aside by
the rooms marooned when 4 lucky
sail had borne them TO fresh port-a
trifing vase or two. pictures of ac-
tresses. a medicine bottle. some stray
cards out of 8 deck
One by one. as the characters of a
cryptograph become explicit. the little
signs left by the furnished rooms pro
cession of guests developed a signifi-
cance. The threadbare space in the
lovely woman had marched in the
! throng. Tiny finger prints on the wall
spoke of little prisoners trying to feel
their way to sun and air. A splattered
stain. raying like the shadow of a
bursting bomb witnessed where q
with it's contents against the wall.
Across the pier glass had been scrawleG
with a diamond in staggering letters
| the name Marie 1t seemed that the
succession of dwellers in the furnish
ed room had turned in fury-perhaps
tempted beyond forbearance by its
garish coldness-and wreaked upon it
their passions. The furniture was
clipped and bruised; the couch, dis
torted by bursting springs. seemed a
horrible monster that had been slain
during the stress of some grotesque
| "a
heaval had cioyen a great slice from
the marble mantel Each plank in the
floor owned its particular cant and
shrek as from a separate and indi-
vidual agony.
1t seemed Incredible that all this
malice and injury had been wrought
upon the room by those who had call
ed it for a time their home, and yet il
may have been the cheated home in
stinct surviving blindly. the resentful
rage of false household gods. that had
kindIed Their wrath 4 hut that IS OH
own we can sweep and adorn and
cherish.
The young tenant in the chair allow
ed these thoughts to file, soft shod
through his mind. while there drifted
into the room furnished sounds and
/ furnished scents. He heard in ore
room a tittering and fncontinent, slack
/ laughter. in others the monologue of q
scold, the rattling of dice. a lullaby and
/ one crying duly Above him a banjo
tinkled with spirit Doors banged
somewhere: the elevated trains roared
intermittentlF: cat yowled miserably
upon a back fence. And he breathed
the breath of the house-a dank savoi
rather than a smeli-a cold musty eff
| fiuvium as from underground vaults
mingled with the reeking exhalation>
of linoleum and mildewed and rotten
woodwork.
Then suddenly as he rested there the
room was filed with the strong. sweet
odor of inignonette. 1t came as upoL
a single buffet Of wind with such sure
ness and fragrance and emphasis thai
| it almost seemed living visitant. And
the man cried aloud, What. deary' as
/ if he had Eeen called. and sprang u
and faced about The rich odor clung
to him and wrapped him around. h
reached out his arms for it. ali his
senses for the time confused and com
mingled how could one be .perempto
rily called by an odor? Surely it mus
have been a sound But was it not the
sound that had touched. that had ca
ressed him?
''She has been in this ROOM" h1
cried. and be sprang to wrest from il
a token, for he knew he would reco.
nize the smallest thing that had be
longed to her or that she had touched
This enveloping scent of mignonette
the odor that she had loved and made
her oWn-wnence came it?
The room had been but carelessiy
set in order Scattered upon the film
sy dresser scarf were half dozea
| hairpins-these discreet, indistinguisl.
able friends of womankind. femininf
of gender. Infinite of mood and unconl
municative of tense. These he ignof
/ ed, conscious of their triumphant lacb
of identity. Ransacking the drawer: