{"product_id":"2940012790897","title":"SHE AND ALLAN","description":"NOTE BY THE LATE MR. ALLAN QUATERMAIN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy friend, into whose hands I hope that all these manuscripts of mine\u003cbr\u003ewill pass one day, of this one I have something to say to you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA long while ago I jotted down in it the history of the events that\u003cbr\u003eit details with more or less completeness. This I did for my own\u003cbr\u003esatisfaction. You will have noted how memory fails us as we advance\u003cbr\u003ein years; we recollect, with an almost painful exactitude, what we\u003cbr\u003eexperienced and saw in our youth, but the happenings of our middle\u003cbr\u003elife slip away from us or become blurred, like a stretch of low-lying\u003cbr\u003elandscape overflowed by grey and nebulous mist. Far off the sun still\u003cbr\u003eseems to shine upon the plains and hills of adolescence and early\u003cbr\u003emanhood, as yet it shines about us in the fleeting hours of our age,\u003cbr\u003ethat ground on which we stand to-day, but the valley between is filled\u003cbr\u003ewith fog. Yes, even its prominences, which symbolise the more startling\u003cbr\u003eevents of that past, often are lost in this confusing fog.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was an appreciation of these truths which led me to set down the\u003cbr\u003efollowing details (though of course much is omitted) of my brief\u003cbr\u003eintercourse with the strange and splendid creature whom I knew under the\u003cbr\u003enames of _Ayesha_, or _Híya_, or _She-who-commands_; not indeed with any\u003cbr\u003eview to their publication, but before I forgot them that, if I wished to\u003cbr\u003edo so, I might re-peruse them in the evening of old age to which I hope\u003cbr\u003eto attain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIndeed, at the time the last thing I intended was that they should be\u003cbr\u003egiven to the world even after my own death, because they, or many of\u003cbr\u003ethem, are so unusual that I feared lest they should cause smiles and\u003cbr\u003ein a way cast a slur upon my memory and truthfulness. Also, as you will\u003cbr\u003eread, as to this matter I made a promise and I have always tried to\u003cbr\u003ekeep my promises and to guard the secrets of others. For these reasons I\u003cbr\u003eproposed, in case I neglected or forgot to destroy them myself, to leave\u003cbr\u003ea direction that this should be done by my executors. Further, I have\u003cbr\u003ebeen careful to make no allusion _whatever_ to them either in casual\u003cbr\u003econversation or in anything else that I may have written, my desire\u003cbr\u003ebeing that this page of my life should be kept quite private, something\u003cbr\u003eknown only to myself. Therefore, too, I never so much as hinted of them\u003cbr\u003eto anyone, not even to yourself to whom I have told so much.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, I recorded the main facts concerning this expedition and its\u003cbr\u003eissues, simply and with as much exactness as I could, and laid them\u003cbr\u003easide. I do not say that I never thought of them again, since amongst\u003cbr\u003ethem were some which, together with the problems they suggested, proved\u003cbr\u003eto be of an unforgettable nature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso, whenever any of Ayesha's sayings or stories which are not\u003cbr\u003epreserved in these pages came back to me, as has happened from time to\u003cbr\u003etime, I jotted them down and put them away with this manuscript. Thus\u003cbr\u003eamong these notes you will find a history of the city of Kôr as she told\u003cbr\u003eit to me, which I have omitted here. Still, many of these remarkable\u003cbr\u003eevents did more or less fade from my mind, as the image does from\u003cbr\u003ean unfixed photograph, till only their outlines remained, faint if\u003cbr\u003edistinguishable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo tell the truth, I was rather ashamed of the whole story in which\u003cbr\u003eI cut so poor a figure. On reflection it was obvious to me, although\u003cbr\u003ehonesty had compelled me to set out all that is essential exactly as it\u003cbr\u003eoccurred, adding nothing and taking nothing away, that I had been the\u003cbr\u003evictim of very gross deceit. This strange woman, whom I had met in the\u003cbr\u003eruins of a place called Kôr, without any doubt had thrown a glamour over\u003cbr\u003emy senses and at the moment almost caused me to believe much that is\u003cbr\u003equite unbelievable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor instance, she had told me ridiculous stories as to interviews\u003cbr\u003ebetween herself and certain heathen goddesses, though it is true that,\u003cbr\u003ealmost with her next breath, these she qualified or contradicted. Also,\u003cbr\u003eshe had suggested that her life had been prolonged far beyond our mortal\u003cbr\u003espan, for hundreds and hundreds of years, indeed; which, as Euclid says,\u003cbr\u003eis absurd, and had pretended to supernatural powers, which is still more\u003cbr\u003eabsurd. Moreover, by a clever use of some hypnotic or mesmeric power,\u003cbr\u003eshe had feigned to transport me to some place beyond the earth and in\u003cbr\u003ethe Halls of Hades to show me what is veiled from the eyes of man,\u003cbr\u003eand not only me, but the savage warrior Umhlopekazi, commonly called\u003cbr\u003eUmslopogaas of the Axe, who, with Hans, a Hottentot, was my companion\u003cbr\u003eupon that adventure. There were like things equally incredible, such as\u003cbr\u003eher appearance, when all seemed lost, in the battle with the troll-like\u003cbr\u003eRezu.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145464955120,"sku":"2940012790897","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012790897_p0.jpg?v=1763572655","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012790897","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}