{"product_id":"2940012791030","title":"ALLAN'S WIFE","description":"DEDICATION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     My Dear Macumazahn,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     It was your native name which I borrowed at the christening\u003cbr\u003e     of that Allen who has become as well known to me as any\u003cbr\u003e     other friend I have. It is therefore fitting that I should\u003cbr\u003e     dedicate to you this, his last tale--the story of his wife,\u003cbr\u003e     and the history of some further adventures which befell him.\u003cbr\u003e     They will remind you of many an African yarn--that with the\u003cbr\u003e     baboons may recall an experience of your own which I did not\u003cbr\u003e     share. And perhaps they will do more than this. Perhaps they\u003cbr\u003e     will bring back to you some of the long past romance of days\u003cbr\u003e     that are lost to us. The country of which Allan Quatermain\u003cbr\u003e     tells his tale is now, for the most part, as well known and\u003cbr\u003e     explored as are the fields of Norfolk. Where we shot and\u003cbr\u003e     trekked and galloped, scarcely seeing the face of civilized\u003cbr\u003e     man, there the gold-seeker builds his cities. The shadow of\u003cbr\u003e     the flag of Britain has, for a while, ceased to fall on the\u003cbr\u003e     Transvaal plains; the game has gone; the misty charm of the\u003cbr\u003e     morning has become the glare of day. All is changed. The\u003cbr\u003e     blue gums that we planted in the garden of the \"Palatial\"\u003cbr\u003e     must be large trees by now, and the \"Palatial\" itself has\u003cbr\u003e     passed from us. Jess sat in it waiting for her love after we\u003cbr\u003e     were gone. There she nursed him back to life. But Jess is\u003cbr\u003e     dead, and strangers own it, or perhaps it is a ruin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     For us too, Macumazahn, as for the land we loved, the\u003cbr\u003e     mystery and promise of the morning are outworn; the mid-day\u003cbr\u003e     sun burns overhead, and at times the way is weary. Few of\u003cbr\u003e     those we knew are left. Some are victims to battle and\u003cbr\u003e     murder, their bones strew the veldt; death has taken some in\u003cbr\u003e     a more gentle fashion; others are hidden from us, we know\u003cbr\u003e     not where. We might well fear to return to that land lest we\u003cbr\u003e     also should see ghosts. But though we walk apart to-day, the\u003cbr\u003e     past yet looks upon us with its unalterable eyes. Still we\u003cbr\u003e     can remember many a boyish enterprise and adventure, lightly\u003cbr\u003e     undertaken, which now would strike us as hazardous indeed.\u003cbr\u003e     Still we can recall the long familiar line of the Pretoria\u003cbr\u003e     Horse, the face of war and panic, the weariness of midnight\u003cbr\u003e     patrols; aye, and hear the roar of guns echoed from the\u003cbr\u003e     Shameful Hill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     To you then, Macumazahn, in perpetual memory of those\u003cbr\u003e     eventful years of youth which we passed together in the\u003cbr\u003e     African towns and on the African veldt, I dedicate these\u003cbr\u003e     pages, subscribing myself now as always,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     Your sincere friend,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     Indanda.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     To Arthur H. D. Cochrane, Esq.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eALLAN'S WIFE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEARLY DAYS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt may be remembered that in the last pages of his diary, written just\u003cbr\u003ebefore his death, Allan Quatermain makes allusion to his long dead wife,\u003cbr\u003estating that he has written of her fully elsewhere.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen his death was known, his papers were handed to myself as his\u003cbr\u003eliterary executor. Among them I found two manuscripts, of which the\u003cbr\u003efollowing is one. The other is simply a record of events wherein Mr.\u003cbr\u003eQuatermain was not personally concerned--a Zulu novel, the story of\u003cbr\u003ewhich was told to him by the hero many years after the tragedy had\u003cbr\u003eoccurred. But with this we have nothing to do at present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have often thought (Mr. Quatermain's manuscript begins) that I would\u003cbr\u003eset down on paper the events connected with my marriage, and the loss of\u003cbr\u003emy most dear wife. Many years have now passed since that event, and to\u003cbr\u003esome extent time has softened the old grief, though Heaven knows it\u003cbr\u003eis still keen enough. On two or three occasions I have even begun the\u003cbr\u003erecord. Once I gave it up because the writing of it depressed me beyond\u003cbr\u003ebearing, once because I was suddenly called away upon a journey, and\u003cbr\u003ethe third time because a Kaffir boy found my manuscript convenient for\u003cbr\u003elighting the kitchen fire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut now that I am at leisure here in England, I will make a fourth\u003cbr\u003eattempt. If I succeed, the story may serve to interest some one in after\u003cbr\u003eyears when I am dead and gone; before that I should not wish it to\u003cbr\u003ebe published. It is a wild tale enough, and suggests some curious\u003cbr\u003ereflections.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am the son of a missionary. My father was originally curate in charge\u003cbr\u003eof a small parish in Oxfordshire. He had already been some ten years\u003cbr\u003emarried to my dear mother when he went there, and he had four children,\u003cbr\u003eof whom I was the youngest. I remember faintly the place where we lived.\u003cbr\u003eIt was an ancient long grey house, facing the road. There was a very\u003cbr\u003elarge tree of some sort in the garden.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145463611632,"sku":"2940012791030","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012791030_p0.jpg?v=1763572658","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012791030","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}