[Illustration] LOVE INSTIGATED BY BELL THE CAT SURLY of the PENDENNIS CLUB THE STORY OF A CARVED IVORY UMBRELLA HANDLE. "The Man that Plants Cabbages Imitates God. "--Dobson's Choice. Caveat Filed, By CURRY & DEARING, Publishers, Louisville, Ky. LOVE PERPETUATED:-- --The Story of a Dagger. By Douglass Sherley, WHO WROTE --THE STORY OF A PICTURE. -- * * * * * An Edition de Luxe [special] net, $10. 00. Limited number. Ninety-nine copies--signed by the Author. Right reserved to advance price at any time. Subscriptions received now. Popular Edition--a Christmas Card Booklet [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 to the·Members·of·the·Sherley·Club of 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 formeda Female Head of East-Indian Unexceptionableness. It seemed to Smile and to Beckon, and then to Scowl repellantly--aLiving 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 theHand! But See the Sequel. It was not an Idol of India. It was the Carved Ivory Handle of a Tanned Gingham Umbrella, of veryPlebeian American Manufacture. It stood in a Hand-painted China Receptacle in The long quiet Hall, inthe House of a Friend. It was there when I Dined with him the NightAfter 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, VoluptuousEnvironment of The "Inner·Sisterhood, " of which it was a Fellow. And when we were seated at the Glittering Table, beautiful with Crystaland Silver-- And Lemonade and Cake-- An Esthetic Banquet-- It Chanced, by Merest Accident, that I was Given a seat opposite ThePortiered Archway which led into The Long Quiet Hall, With its Wine-Colored Wealth of Turkish-Bath Toweling thrown back. And as we Sat Beneath the Iridescent Glow Of the Keely-Motor Electric Lamp, which Glistened and Shimmered Its Stained-Glass Iridescence on all aboutit, and gave its hue to The Invigorating Beverage, we heeded not theElemental war waging upon the Queen Anne Exterior of the HospitableMansion of my Friend. And when we were left to our Coffee and our Pipes, we talked of Daggers, and Epitaphs, and Tombs! And as he told me in a Mysterious Whisper the Story of the Malay Dagger, "Guiltless of all Guile, " the Vitreous Eye of that Quaintly CarvedOdalisque--for such my fevered fancy Pictured it--was ever Glaring atme with its Sinister Glare! And when our Ghostly Talk was Interrupted By the Entrance of otherGuests, I Quaffed Another Crystal Goblet of My Friend's Brain-MaddeningConcoction, and casting a long, lingering Look at the Persian Rug whichhid the Graeco-Romanesque Architecture of the vaulted Ceiling, I passedfrom the Gothic Portals of this Esthetic Shrine into the outerdarkness--beyond the glamour of the Seven Lamps of Architecture. But, --Oh Fitful Fate!--as I passed though The Long, Quiet Hall andby the wine-colored Plush Corner from whose Voluptuous Shadow TheSinister-Eyed, Carved-Ivory-Handle Odalisque cast an Alluring, Appealing Look toward Me, and all Unconsciously, Unintentionally, andUnresistingly I Took it from its Hand-Painted China Receptacle, andclosing the Heavy doors of Rolled, Cathedral Plate Glass After me, I Unfurled its Sun-Tanned Gingham Folds to the aforementioned warringelements. And as I Wended my Desolate Way to the Sainted Shrine ofPendennis, my Seething Brain Peopled the Valley of Unrest with Elfs, And Ravens and Brahman Gods, and the Dagger whose blood-stain belongedto a Venetian Duke. When I Presently Entered the Resounding Cloisters ofthe Order of ST. PENDENNIS--when I entered this "House without a Woman"I sought the seclusion of a dark, Wine-Colored, Plush-Lined Cell, andcarelessly placing the Tanned Gingham, Vegetable-Ivory-handled Umbrellaon the Eighteenth Century Hearth before me, I threw my mentally-exhausted frame into a a Massive, Damask-coveredChair with heavily-carved Arms of highly-polished Oak, and sounded theTiny, Tintinnabulating Call-Bell for Something to Counteract the Effectsof the Too-exhilerating Potables of my Friend, and his no less HarrowingStories! But while I thus sat waiting, with my feet to The Comfortable Fire, allat once my Gaze was Unconsciously, Unintentionally and UnresistinglyTransfixed by the Sinister Glance of The Dexter Eye of the Carved-IvoryOdalisque. And as I sat there in the Twilight Glare of the Slowly-ConsumingEmbers on the Wide and Deep, Old-Fashioned, Open Fire-place, withLacquered-Brass Fire-Dogs--beneath the Spell of those Stealthy, RoguishGlances, I, against My Wish and Will, was led to Think of The dark, strange and weirdly grotesque things of which My Friend had Told me. And finally, as under the Strange Fascination of the Vitreous Dexter andSinister Eyes of The Carved-Ivory Odalisque, which Held me Spell-Bound, I Learned from the Thin, Curled Lips of the said Carved-Ivory Odalisqueits Own Story. It was not Created by Love. Nor was it in Itself the Embodiment of Love. But it Bore in one of itsFlexible Ribs the Tangible Evidence of the Adhesive Qualities of a LoveDriven Back upon itself, --the Concentration of an Otherwise WastedForce. Less than a Thousand Years ago, a Dudish Roderick Dhu stood Flustratedwith Fiery Indignation, face to face with a Maiden Priestess--aPrideful, Haughty Woman! It was on the Rue Quatrieme. It was at the Intersection of two greatThoroughfares. The Clouds had Parted their Bangs in the Middle, and were Shimmeringtheir Crystal Drops of Distilled Ocean in torrental volume upon theLuckless Wayfarers. It chanced that the Prideful Maiden Priestess Was Hurrying adown theBoulevard with the Self-same Carved-Ivory-Handled Umbrella CloselyClasped in Her Delicate Marie Antoinette fingers. She was thus EnsconcedBehind the Sheltering Tautness of the Stout-ribbed Gingham UmbrellaWith the Carved-Ivory Handle, when she passed out of the Shadow of TheMassive Marble Edifice of Gothic Architecture and turned into the Ruede la Chataigne--and Unconsciously, Unintentionally and UnresistinglyPunched a Tear out of the Dexter Eye of the Resistless Roderick Dhu! I am sure that Carved-Ivory, Oggling Odalisque was to Blame! I am surethat it Wantonly Drove the Spare Rib of the Stout Gingham Umbrella tothe Accomplishment of its own Foul Purpose! The Prideful Maiden Priestess had great Commiseration for the ArdentRoderick. She Frankly Told him so. And in a Tacit but Potent--Oh, so Potent--Way, bade him, if he liked, to go with her to her Shrine and there have his Weeping Wounds Bound upwith "a Bit of East India Silk, "--at her Shrine, whose Doors should everbe Open to Him. Oh! Chance, Fortuitous Chance! How many Followers of St. Pendennis areAnnually Ensnared in thy Name! Ere Long, --within a Month, a Little Month--the Dudish Roderick Dhu was acringing devotee at the Vestal Shrine of the Maiden Priestess, Prayingthat she should receive all his Suppliant Love, and "right smart" of hisdevotion. He would never leave Her Side. He would Never, never Smile onother Maidens. He would Sacrifice each Trusted and Trusting Friend andCreditor. She MUST receive his Heart and Hand, and his Partially-EclipsedOccular! Else, where, all the while, was all this Wealth of Passionate Love togo to--If it was Spurned and Sent Back to its Donor? Who would have itSecond-Handed? This was, indeed, a Poser. It was Unanswerable! She did not Attempt to Answer it. She only Considered the FirstProposition. And she Thought of the Cruel, Cruel Deed Which she had been Ledby the Vitreous-Eyed Odalisque of Carved-Ivory to Unintentionally, Unconsciously, and Unresistingly Perpetrate Upon Him; And--to cut aShort Story shorter--she cast her 'Mind's Eye, Horatio, ' upon his QueenAnne Mansion Front, and Determined to Bestow upon the Injured Innocentwhat remained--after Five Seasons--of the Wealth of Her Young Love. --Thus Simply is Love Instigated. -- Had the Maiden Princess Refused him her Silver-Tinged Love--Had sheSpurned and Thrown back upon his Hands his Passion torn To Tatters--heMight Have Perpetuated his Love by Writing "a Book Without a Woman, " orBetter still, he Might Have Spent the Force of his Extravagant Passionby Executing, in Endless number and variety, Patent Ivory-handledUmbrellas, Quaintly Carved in the Verisimility of the Oggling Odalisque, which Impelled the Hand that Instigated his Love by Peeling his DexterEye. But, Alas! The Thoughtless Pair of Innocents did not Consider thattheir Love, being Mutual, Must, by the Decree of St. Douglass, die--Unperpetuated--with Them! Or, if they Weighed the Dire Decree in the Balances of their SocialPhilosophy, I Doubt Not that they Considered that if they Perpetuatedtheir Love the Length of their Natural Lives they Would haveAccomplished Enough. And, methinks their Heads were Equipoised. ThisWork-a-Day World has all the Dudish Booklets and Carved-Ivory Dagger andUmbrella Handles that it can Easily Carry. Let not Another Booklet breakOld Atlas' Back. And "Douglass, O Douglass, Tender and True, " Carve for us no moreHeathen Gods of Love. E'en now Their Occupation's Gone. The Star-Eyed Goddess that Shines Forth From the Glittering Surface ofthe Almighty Dollar is Goddess Potent enough to Perpetuate the Love ofthis Day and Generation, even as by her Influence often is Love Instigated. * * * * * But the Quaintly Carved Vegetable-Ivory Odalisque Handle of theTanned-Gingham Umbrella that Rested in the Hand-Painted China Receptaclethat Stood in the Voluptuous Environment of the Wine-Colored PlushCorner of the Long, Quiet Hall of the House of a Friend Where I Suppedthe Night after Christmas--[Was this the House that Zack Built?]--Itstill Glared at me with a Sinister Gleam of its Dexter Eye as it Oggledme from its Place on the Hearth of the Wine-Scented Cell--Plush-LinedCell--in the Cloistered Precincts of Saint Pendennis. * * * * * It seemed to Smile a Ready, Garrulous Assent to all that which I haveSaid. These Words it Seemed to Murmur: Oh! Thou Unmitigated Umbrella-Theif! Return Me to the home of thosewhose Love I Instigated, whose Happy Household I am Responsible for. Wake ye! Sleeping Son of Pendennis, or by the Goddess Si[l]va, I willExecute Dire Vengeance Upon you! Even as I once was the Instigator of Love, upon You may be, Love Instigated! [Illustration]