{"product_id":"2940012881922","title":"LINDA LEE INCORPORATED","description":"\"Mrs. Bellamy Druce! Rather a mouthful, that.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Is that why you make a face over it?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Didn't expect me to relish it, did you, Cinda?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'm afraid I wasn't thinking of you at all, Dobbin, when I took it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Meaning, if you had been, you might have thought twice before taking?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No fear: I was much too madly in love with Bel.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Was?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Dobbin!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Sorry--didn't mean to be impertinent.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I don't believe you. Still, I'm so fond of you, I'll forgive you--this\u003cbr\u003eonce.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Won't have to twice. I only--well, naturally, I wanted to know whether\u003cbr\u003eor not it had taken.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Taken?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Your matrimonial inoculation.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I think one may safely say it has. I've grown so old and wise in\u003cbr\u003emarriage, it really seems funny to remember I was ever an innocent.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Four years----\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Going on five.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's seemed a long time to me, too, Cinda--five years since these eyes\u003cbr\u003ewere last made glad by the sight of you.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"At least, time hasn't impaired your knack at pretty speeches.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nor your power to inspire them.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'm not so sure. To myself I seem ever so much older.\" Lucinda Druce\u003cbr\u003eturned full face to the man on her left, anxiety feigned or real\u003cbr\u003epuckering the delicately pencilled brows. \"Doesn't it show at all,\u003cbr\u003eDobbin, the ruthless march of advancing years?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe man narrowed critically his eyes and withheld his verdict as if in\u003cbr\u003edoubt; but a corner of his mouth was twitching.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You are lovelier today than ever, lovelier even than the memories of\u003cbr\u003eyou that have quickened my dreams----\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"All through these years? How sweet--and what utter tosh! You know\u003cbr\u003eperfectly well your heart hasn't been true to Poll----\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Unfortunately, the damn' thing has. Oh, I'm not pretending I didn't do\u003cbr\u003emy level best to forget, tried so hard I thought I had won out. But it\u003cbr\u003eonly needed this meeting tonight to prove that the others were merely\u003cbr\u003eanodynes for a pain that rankled on, as mortal hurts do always, 'way\u003cbr\u003edown beneath the influence of the opiate.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Truly, Dobbin, you've lost nothing of your ancient eloquence. That last\u003cbr\u003espeech quite carried me back to the days when, more than once, you all\u003cbr\u003ebut talked me off my feet and into your arms.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Pity I ever stopped talking.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I wonder!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You wonder----?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Whether it's really a pity you never quite succeeded in talking me into\u003cbr\u003ebelieving I loved you enough to marry you, whether we wouldn't all have\u003cbr\u003ebeen happier, you, Bel, and I.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Then you aren't altogether----\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hush! I haven't said so.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No; but you've had time to find out.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Perhaps....\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And you know your secrets are safe with me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"That's why I'm going to say--what I am going to say.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"O Lord! now I shall catch it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't be afraid, Dobbin, I'm not going to scold. But I know you so\u003cbr\u003ewell, how direct and persistent you are--yes, and how sincere--it's only\u003cbr\u003efair to tell you, the traditions of our kind to the contrary\u003cbr\u003enotwithstanding, I'm still in love with my husband.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a moment Richard Daubeney was silent, staring at his plate. Then he\u003cbr\u003eroused with a light-hearted shrug and smile.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And that's that!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLucinda nodded with amiable emphasis: \"That's that.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe black arm of a waiter came between them, and the woman let an\u003cbr\u003eabstracted gaze stray idly across the shimmering field of the table,\u003cbr\u003ewhile the man at her side ceased not to remark with glowing appreciation\u003cbr\u003ethe perfection of her gesture, at once so gracious, spirited, and\u003cbr\u003ereserved.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNever one to wear her heart on her sleeve, Lucinda. Look at her now: Who\u003cbr\u003ewould ever guess she had lived to learn much, to unlearn more, in so\u003cbr\u003ebrief a term of married life? Surely the sweet lift of her head, the\u003cbr\u003eshadowy smile that lurked ever about her lips, the exquisite poise of\u003cbr\u003ethat consummate body bespoke neither disillusionment nor discontent. And\u003cbr\u003ewho should say the dream was not a happy one that clouded the accustomed\u003cbr\u003eclearness of her eyes?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnclouded and serene once more, these turned again his way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's like you, Dobbin, to start making love to me all over again,\u003cbr\u003eprecisely as if my being married meant nothing, in the first minutes of\u003cbr\u003eour first meeting in five years, without offering to tell me a single\u003cbr\u003ething about yourself.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nothing much to tell. Everybody knows, when you engaged yourself to\u003cbr\u003emarry Druce, I rode off to the wars. Oh, for purely selfish motives! If\u003cbr\u003eI'd stayed, I'd have made a stupid exhibition of myself one way or\u003cbr\u003eanother, taken to drink or something equally idiotic. So vanity prompted\u003cbr\u003eme to blaze a trail across the waters for my beloved country to follow\u003cbr\u003ewhen its hour struck.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081935405296,"sku":"2940012881922","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012881922_p0.jpg?v=1763573451","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012881922","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}