Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1918-05-24

| per Syndicate)
The new sales girl in the little per-
| fume shop on Maine street had broken
bottle of French perfume just as
| the clock pointed to twelve O'Clock,
and so it happened that shoppers and
on business as they walked along the
| busy section of Main street that d,
about lunch time were impressed
either pleasurably or otherwise by the
penetrating odor of one of tie most
alluring of perfumes. For the perfume
| had been spilled on the floor of the
shop near the door, which was open to
let in the first warm spring sunlight
and it had been carried forth on the
fresh air till it suffused the atmoS-
phere for a hundred feet or more.
Some who passed looked about as if
to behold a tree in blossom in the
vicinity; but whoever scented it felt
curiosity, for there was that in the
extract that called up indefnable and
tantalizing recollections.
Susan Beverly, as she alighted from
| her little electric that she drove her
self and put foot on the curbstone,
first shifted vigorously and then looked
| about. To her the perfume had po-
| tent associations that seemed to pos
sess her imagination before she could
put into form the nature of them. She
whitfield again, looked around and then
| =, - u IN
the perfume shop say to another, as
they stepped out of the shop on their
way to luncheon:
"Too bad she happened to break
that bottle" with an emphasis on the
that. Its the most expensive per-
fume in the shop-souvenir d'a-
mour' only she pronounced it $500
venire damoor" "Sells for twelve dol-
lars a bottle
"Yes, it was too bad, and the madam
says she'll take it out of her wages"
Its shame to spill twelve dollars
all at once. But it makes an elegant
| smell"
And the other girl agreed that it
was "swell."
Long after Susan had passed out of
the radius of the aroma of the spilled
souvenir d'amour her mind was Occu-
pied with the train of associations it
had called up. At first vague and ill
defined, they gradually shaped them
selves. BY the time she reached her
home on the outskirts of the city she
| in rno011natinn hnt hnr rnaOI-
lections were by no means melancholy.
The detail of the little experience of
| the spilled perfume that assumed the
| largest proportions in her thoughts
was that the bottle had cost twelve
dollars. Twelve dollars was good
deal for anyone to spend for gift
| She reflected that people did not spent
that much-especially when they were
not especially well off-on persons for
whom they had little regard. 1t seemed
to her then that if she had always
| known that souvenir d'amOur cost
| twelve dollars a bottle it might have
made a difference. She had thought
if she had thought about the cost of 1t
at all-that it cost not more than a
dollar a bottle.
But though her thoughts were thus
mercenary to begin with, eventually
the seductive influence of the perfume
had its effect and, though she was far
out of the radius of the sweet odOr, in
her imagination she smelled it yet.
1t haunted her like a vision that would
not down-Or a sweet, haunting melody
that runs through the mind-Only this
was vision or melody of the sense of
smell and, they say, this sense is of
the five the most persistent in it's pow
err of association. So from being quite
cheerful about the recollections that 1T
aroused, she became truly pensive.
Susan was thirty and she had so Of
ten told herself that spinster of that
age has grown too old and too sensible
for romantic recollections or senti-
ments that she believed it. 1t was just
a little disconcerting then when, as
the afternoon wore on, she found her
self in the mood of a love-Struck girl
of twenty She had planned to spend
the afternoon On the golf links getting
II trim for the weekend tournament,
but for o'clock found her reclining on
a wicker long chair under the trees in
the garden, shielded by the lilac hedge
with an assortment of once favorite
poets for diversion. This was not at
all like the thirty-year-old Susan. 1t
really did seem as if a drop of the per-
fume must have spattered on Susan's
frock so persistent were the memories
1t had recalled. Eventually she rose
from her chair, walked along the lilac
row, retraced her steps, counted out
the seventh lilac bush from the end
and then stood gazing down at the
earth beneath the bush. She went off
to the gardeners hut and returned with
trowel, then she fell to work digging
with the intensity of one sure of I'M
earthing Captain Kids treasure in a
certain spot. Once the old gardener
came along and asked her whether he
might help her. She said something
| about wanting RI see the condition of