The Monroe journal., 1910-08-02

per granules OF to-day buried tomoF
row in ooze and slime
The furnished room received It's lar
est guest With 4 frSI glow Of pseudo
hospitality. a hectic. haggard. perfume
tory welcome Ike the specious smil'
Of a demIrep The sophistical comfor
came In reflected CLEANS from the de
cayed furniture. the ragged brocad'
upholstery Of couch and two chairs
a foot wide cheap pier glass between
the two windows. from one or two sill
picture frames and a brass bedsteat
In corner.
The guest reclined inert. upon 8
chair. while the room. confused In
speech as though IL were an apart
ment in Babel. tried to discourse tC
him Of its divers tenantry.
A polyehromatic rug like some bril-.
liant lowered rectangular, tropical is
let lay surrounded by billowy sea
of soiledmatting. Upon the gay papered
wall were those pictures that pursue
the homeless one from house 10 house
The Huguenot Lovers" The First
Quarrel" The Wedding Breakfast.
Psyche at the Fountain" The mantel'S
chastely severe outline was incloriouS.
~ yelled behind some pert drapery
drawn rakishly aSkew like the sashe.'
of the amazonian ballet Upon II was
some desolate fotsam cast aside by
the rooms marooned when 4 lucky
sail had borne them TO a fresh port-G
trifing vase or two. pictures Of ae-
tresses, a medicine bottle. some stray
cards out of a 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 signiti-
canoe. The threadbare space In the
rug in front of the dresser told that
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. raging like the shadow Of a
bursting bomb, witnessed where
hurled glass or bottle had splintered
with its contents against the wall.
Across the pier glass had been scrawled
with a diamond in staggering letters
the name Marie. II seemed that the
succession Of jewellers in the furnish
ed room had turned in fury-perhaps
tempted beyond forbearance by its
garish coldness-and wreaked upon II
their passions. The furniture was
clipped and bruised; the couch, dis
torted by bursting springs, seemed
horrible monster that had been slain
during the stress of some grotesQue
CONFUSION. Some more potent up
heaval had cloven great slice from
the marble mantel. Each plank in the
loor 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 cali
ed 1t for 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
kindled their wrath. A hut that is our
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 one
room a tittering and incontinent, slack
laughter, in others the monologue Of
scold. the rafting Of dice, lullaby and
one crying duly. Above him banjo
tinkled with spirit Doors banged
the elevated trains roarcd
cat yowled miserably
upon a back fence. And he breathed
the breath Of the house-a dank SAVIOR
rather than smell-a cold. musty eff
fuvium as from underground vaults.
mingled with the reeking exhalations |
OF linoleum and mildewed and rotten
woodwork.
Then suddenly as he rested there the |
room was filed with the strong. sweet
odor of mignonette. 1t came as upon
n single buffet of wind with such sure
ness and fragrance aud emphasis that /
il almost seemed a living visitant And (
the man cried aloud. What. dear?' as
II he had been called, and sprang up T
and faced about. The rich odor chung T
to him and wrapped him around. lie
reached out his arms for 1t, all his
senses for the time confused and com.
mingled. How could one be perempto.
rily called by an odor? Surely 1t must
have been a sound. But was it not the
sound that had touched. that had ca.
ressed him?
"She has been IN this room" he
'ried. and be sprang to wrest from il
token. for he knew he would recog-
lize the smallest thing that had be.
onged TO her or that she had touched
This enveloping scent Of mignonette.
he odor that she had loved and made
ler own-whence came It?
The room had been but carelessly
'et in order. Scattered upon the film
" dresser scarf were half a dozen
discreet. indistinguish.
lble friends Of womankind, feminine
II gender. infinite of mood and uncom.
Of tense. These he ignor.
ID. conscious Of their triumphant lack
n idantitv Ransaotfnr tha dra xrarc