The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-27
EVENING STORY
Souvenir glamour.
BY MONA CoWLES.

/
BY MONA CowLES.
Copyright, 19is. oy, Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate-)
The new sales girl in the little per-
fuIne shop on Main street had broken
bottle of French perfume just as
the clock pointed to IL o'clock, and
SO it happened that shoppers and Of
flee workers, idlers and persons bent
on business as they walked along the
busy section of Main street that day
about lunch time were impressed /
either pleasurably or otherwise by the
penetrating odor of one of the most
alluring of perfumes For the per-
fume had been spilled on the floor of
the shop near the door which was
| open to let in the firm warm spring |
sunlight and it had been carried forth
| on the fresh air till it suffused the
atmosphere 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 indefinabie
and tantalizing recoilections.
Susan Beverly. as she alighted from
her little electric that she drove her.
self and put foot On the eurbstone,
| first shifted vigorously ard then
looked about. To her the perfume
had potent associations that seemed
\
could put into form the nature of
! them. She whitfield again, looked
| around and then heard one of the
girls who worked 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-
tune IN n the shop['souysni ir
| "soovenire damoor." Sells for twelve
dollars a bottle
madam says she'll take it out of her
wages"
It's a 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 oceu-
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
was deep in recollection but her recol-
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 any one to spend for a gift
She reflected that people did not spend
that much-especialiy when they were
? not especially well off-on persons for
5 whom they had little regard. 1t SEEM
2 ed to her then that if she had always
! known that Souvenir glamour cost
5 twelve dollars a bottle it might have
5 made difference. She had thought
t If she had thought about the cost of
I il at all-that it cost not more than a
: dollar a bottle.
But tho her thoughts were thus
mercenary to begin with, eventually
! the seductive influence of the perfume
e had its effect and, tho she was far
] out of the radius of the sweet odor, in
= her imagination she smelled it yet.
I 1t haunted her like vision that would
e not down-or a sweet, haunting
f melody that runs thru the mind-only
e this was a vision or melody of the
sense of smell and, they say, this sense
is of the five the most persistent in its
5 power of association. So from being
r quite cheerful about the recoliections
that it aroused, she became truly
pensiye.
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 recoliections or senti-
ments that she believed it. It was just
little diseoncerting then when, as
| the afternoon wore on, she found her
| Selt III the fnOOQ OF a loVe-SlFucK E1fl
, of twenty. She had planned to spend
r the afternoon on the golf links getting
= in trim for the weekend tournament
0 but four o'clock found her reclining
y on a wicker long chair under the trees
in the garden, shielded by the lilac
t ! favorite poets for diversion. This was
n | not at all like the thirty-year-o old
: Susan. 1t really did seem as if a drop
z of the perfume must have spattered
l &c f-oa fcfa
r the memories it had recalled. Event.
| ually she rose from her chair. walked
| along the lilac row, retraced he1
4 steps, counted out the seventh lilac
v bush from the end and then stood
. gazing down at the earth beneath the
| bush. She went off to the gardeners
G hut and returned with a trowel, ther
: she fell to work digging with the in
: tensity of one sure of unearthing Cap
= tain Kids treasure in a certain spot
u Once the old gardener came along and
i asked her whether he might help her
4 She said something about wanting tt
see the condition of the soil. and con
tinued. Once she was interrupted b
/. a member of her family: she hastily
II pressed back the sod when she saw
II him approa ching. resumed her posture
: | on the long chair and sremained there
e till he had gone. Then she took uT
# her digging.
d Her first excavation was not in tbs
n right place, nor the second. and it was
= not till she had made a third hole OF
n about a foets depth in the ground thai
p she found her treasure. AS she lifted
l, 1t up from the earth that chung around
e it, it looked as If it might have beer
y the tear bottle of some long inferred
is Egyptian princess. but as she scraped
n off the mould from the sides it ap-
| peared to be modern glass. After q
little effort she Embossed the stopper
! and leaned over the bottle for tbs
scent that came forth. 1t was faint
/ but there was no mistake about it,. II
I was Souvenir dFAmour.
Twelve dollars a bottle" sighed
Susan to herself. And then she fell te
thinking of what might have been.