Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1886 — The Story of a Scent-Bottle. [ARTICLE]

The Story of a Scent-Bottle.

There’s one girl in this town who will not carry a scent-bottle any more. It was her little brother who did it. She was going out ter 1 the theater with her best beau. Several tendernesses had passed between them, and they were reaching the stage -when he began to inadvertantly begin his notes, “My Deare Miss and then scratch out the “e.” ' She, of course, never noticed it, but she had occasionally, quite accidentally, underlined the “Yours” at the end. it is lovely to watch the growing boldness of young love. “Dear Miss ,” “My Pear Miss—.—,” “Pear Miss Lucy,” “Pear Lucy.” “My Pear Lucy,” “jPearest Lucy,” “My Pearest Lucy,” ‘*My Own Pearest,” “My Owrn Pearest Parling.” In > love letter you must always get your work in in the beginning. The address tells evervtlung* and a man could no more persuade a woman he loved her if he began with a formal address thah he could persuade her he didn’t love her by telling her so. But iuyhow these two young hearts ,bad a desk in the They w;ere gradually working toward a courtship >n the usual arrangement—the, woman to look after the office and the man to 1® the outdoor work. He was going to take her to the theater. She was decked out most handsomely, and her

lovely scent-bottle lay tempting a young brother who was looking about for mischief. He picked it up and disappeared with it. Then he carefully poured out thS" fragrant perfume and filled it with whisky. Then the happy couple departed, and Mepliisto junior chuckled to himself with fiendish glee. They sat entranced in one another, fondly believing they were enjoying the ballet. He„in a kind of dream, reached over afid took her scent-bottle. She let it go.« He unscrewed the top and took a long <*»sniff. His dream was dispelled. He did not say a ( word. Tlio love died from his eyes, from his heart, and she did not find out till she had gone to her room, tearful and sad, wliat had caused the change. She has told him since of her young brother’s joke. He smiles sadly. He believes her. But the of that whisky forever comes between him and her.—Undertones, in San Francisco Chronicle. ■