The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1918-06-11
Souvenir
d'Annour
o0 4
BY MONA cowLES


The new sales girl In the little per
fume shop on Maine street had broken
q bottle Of French perfume just as
the clock pointed to twelve o'clock,
and SO 1t happened that shoppers and
>ofiice workers. idlers and persons bent
on business as they walked along the
busy section Of Main street that d !.
about lunch dime were impressed
either pleasurably or otherwise by the
penetrating odor Of one Of the most
hlluring Of perfumes. For the perfume
bad been spilled on the floor Of the
shop near the door. which was open to
Jet In the first warm spring sunlight
and 1t had been carried forth on the
fresh air till It suffused the atmos-
phere for q hundred feet or more.
Some who passed looked about as If
to behold q tree In blossom In the
vicinity; but whoever scented 1t felt
curiosity. for there was that In the
extract that called up indefinable and
tantalizing recollections.
Susan Beverly, as she alighted from
her little electric that she drove her
self and put foot on the curbstone,
drst shifted vigorously and then looked
about. To her the perfume had DO
tent associations that seemed to DOS
sess her imagination before she could
put into form the nature Of them. She
whifted 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-
fume In the shop-souvenir d'a-
mour' only she pronounced It $500
venire damoor." "Sells for twelve dol
lars bottle"
yes. 1t was too bad, and the madam
says she'll take 1t out of her wages"
ITS shame to spill twelve dollars
all at once. But 1t makes an elegant
smell"
And the other girl agreed that it
Tas swell"
Long after Susan had passed out Of
he radius Of the aroma Of the spilled
,ouvenir d'amour her mind was occu-
pied with the train OF associations 1t
had called up. At first vague and i'll
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 anyone to spend for a 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 IL she had always
known that souvenir glamour cost
twelve dollars a bottle 1t might have
made difference. She had thought
Ii she had thought about the cost Of 1t
at all-that 1t cost not more than q
dollar bottle.
But though her thoughts were thus
to begin with, eventually
the seductive influence of the perfume
had Its effect and, though she was far
put of the radius of the sweet odor, in
her Imagination she smelled 1t yet.
It haunted her like vision that would
not down-or 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 its pow