Love Instigated | Page 2

[in a box], $1.00. Liberal Discount to the Trade.
Edition de Luxe ready December Fifteenth.
Popular Edition ready December First.
John P.
Morton and Company.
Main St.,
Louisville, Ky.
Special·Dedication
t o

the·Members·of·the·Sherley·Club
o f
Little·:·Britain:

--Despair·ye·not·at·all--


E'en·by·so·Small·a·Thing·as·this·Poor·Booklet
May·Your
Loves·be·Instigated!
Dedicated

To·Each·Single·Son·of·St.·Pendennis

Who·Worships·not·at·the·Shrine·of

The·Maiden·Priestess·of·To-day
--Let·Him·Look·to't,--

Or·Likewise·He·May·Somewhere·Find
Love·Perpetrated.
Love Instigated.
It was a daisy bit of Ivory.
It was a curious piece of Workmanship.
It was carved and carved again with Conventional Lines, which formed
a Female Head of East-Indian Unexceptionableness.
It seemed to Smile and to Beckon, and then to Scowl repellantly--a
Living Mockery!
It was Hateful--Oh, so Hateful!--the sight Of so conventional a Thing.
And yet there had been such a Longing to touch It and to Hold It in the
Hand!
But See the Sequel.
It was not an Idol of India.
It was the Carved Ivory Handle of a Tanned Gingham Umbrella, of
very Plebeian American Manufacture.
It stood in a Hand-painted China Receptacle in The long quiet Hall, in
the House of a Friend. It was there when I Dined with him the Night
After Christmas.
It Gleamed at me with a Sinister Gleam of its Dexter Eye!

And it seemed to Smile and to Beckon at me out of the Soft,
Voluptuous Environment of The "Inner·Sisterhood," of which it was a
Fellow.
And when we were seated at the Glittering Table, beautiful with
Crystal and Silver--
And Lemonade and Cake--
An Esthetic Banquet--
It Chanced, by Merest Accident, that I was Given a seat opposite The
Portiered Archway which led into
The Long Quiet Hall,
With its Wine-Colored Wealth of Turkish-Bath Toweling