The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-07-08

hurled glass or bottle had spllntered
with It's contents against the wall.
Across the pier glass had been scrawled
with diamond In staggering letters
the name Marie. II seemed that the
succession Of dwellers in the furnish
ed room had turned IN perhaps
tempted beyond forbearance by its
garsh coldness-and wreaked upon II
their passions, The furniture was
Clipped and Bruised the couch, dis
torted by bursting springs, seemed Il
horrible monster that had been slam
/ during the stress of some grotesque
! convusion Some more potent up
heaval had cloven a great slice from
the marble manteL Each plank in the
floor owned its particular cant and
shrek as from n 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 II for a time their home, ana yet it
may have been the cheated home in
stinct surviving blindly, the resentful
rage of false household gods, that had
klndled their wrath. A hut that is our
own we can sweep and adorn and
cherish.
The young tenant In the chair allow
cd these thoughts 10 llle, soft shed,
through his mind, while thero dr'ftcd
into the room furnished sounds and
furnished scents He heard in one
room a titterlng and incontinent slack
laughter, In others the monologue of q
scold, the rattllng Of dice, u lullaby and
one crying duly Above him banjo
tinkled with spirit. Doors banged
somewhere; the elevated trains roared
intermittently; a cat yowled miserably
upon a back fence. And he breathed
the breath Of the house-a dank SAVIOR
rather than a smell-a cold, musty eff
fuvium as from underground vaults,
mingled with the Teeking exhalations
Of linoleum and mildewed and rotten
woodwork.
Then suddenly as he rested there the
room was filled with the strong, sweet
odor Of mignonette. 1t came as upon
a single buffet of wind with such sure
ness and fragrance and emphasis that
It almost seemed a living visitant, And
the man cried aloud, what dear?" as
If he had been called, and sprang up
and faced about The rich odor clung
to him and wrapped him around. He
reached on: his arms for it, all his
senses for the time confused and com
mingled. Eow could one be perempto-
rily called by an odor? Surely it 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
cried, and be sprang to wrest from it
a token, for he knew he would recog-
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-whence came It?
The room had been but carelessly
set in order. Scattered upon the film
sy dresser scarf were half a dozen
hairpins-those discreet, indistinguish-
able friends of womaniind, feminine
Of gender, infinite of mood and uncom-
municative of tense. These he ignor-
ed, conscious of their triumphant lack
of identity. Ransacklng the drawers
Of the dresser, he came upon a discard
ed, tiny, ragged handkerchief. He
pressed it to his face. 1t was racy and
insolent with heliotrope. He hurled
it to the floor. In another drawer he
found odd buttons, a theater pro-
gram, pawnbroker's card, two lost
marshmallOws, a book on the div
ination Of dreams. In the last was
a woman's black satin hair bow,
which halted him, poised between ice
and fire. But the black satin hair
bow also Is femininity's demure, i'm
personal, common ornament and tells
no tales.
And then he traversed the room like
a hound on the scent, skimming the
walls. considering the corners Of the
bulging mating on his hands and
knees. rummaging mantel and tables,
the curtains and hanglngs, the drunk
en- cabinet in the corner, for visible
sign, unable to perceive that she was
there beside, around. against, within.
above him, clinging to him. wooing
him, calling him so poignantly through
the finer senses that even his grOsser
ones became cognizant of the call.
Once again he answered loudly. "Yes.
dear!" and turned. wild eyed, to gaze
on vacancy for he could not yet dis
Germ form and color and love and out
stretched arms in the odor of mi
gnonette o God. whence that Odor,
and since when have odors had a
voice to call? Thus he groped.
He burrowed in crevices and-corners
and found corks and cigarettes. These
he passed In passive contempt. But
once he found in fold Of the mat
ting a half smoked cigar, and this he
ground beneath his heel with a green
and trenchant oath. lie sifted the
room from end to end. He found |
lreary and ignoble small records Of |
many a peripateuc tenant, but Of her
whom he sought and who may have
lodged there and whose spirit seemed |
to hover there he found no trace.
And then he thought Of the house
keeper
He ran from the haunted room down
stairs and to a door that showed a
crack of light She came out to his
knock. He smothered his excitement
IS best he could
WNil Won tell me mndnm.n he be. |