{"product_id":"2940013090439","title":"THE PARADISE MYSTERY","description":"CHAPTER I. ONLY THE GUARDIAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmerican tourists, sure appreciators of all that is ancient and\u003cbr\u003epicturesque in England, invariably come to a halt, holding their breath\u003cbr\u003ein a sudden catch of wonder, as they pass through the half-ruinous\u003cbr\u003egateway which admits to the Close of Wrychester. Nowhere else in England\u003cbr\u003eis there a fairer prospect of old-world peace. There before their eyes,\u003cbr\u003eset in the centre of a great green sward, fringed by tall elms and giant\u003cbr\u003ebeeches, rises the vast fabric of the thirteenth-century Cathedral, its\u003cbr\u003ehigh spire piercing the skies in which rooks are for ever circling and\u003cbr\u003ecalling. The time-worn stone, at a little distance delicate as lacework,\u003cbr\u003eis transformed at different hours of the day into shifting shades of\u003cbr\u003ecolour, varying from grey to purple: the massiveness of the great nave\u003cbr\u003eand transepts contrasts impressively with the gradual tapering of\u003cbr\u003ethe spire, rising so high above turret and clerestory that it at last\u003cbr\u003ebecomes a mere line against the ether. In morning, as in afternoon, or\u003cbr\u003ein evening, here is a perpetual atmosphere of rest; and not around the\u003cbr\u003egreat church alone, but in the quaint and ancient houses which fence in\u003cbr\u003ethe Close. Little less old than the mighty mass of stone on which their\u003cbr\u003eivy-framed windows look, these houses make the casual observer feel\u003cbr\u003ethat here, if anywhere in the world, life must needs run smoothly. Under\u003cbr\u003ethose high gables, behind those mullioned windows, in the beautiful\u003cbr\u003eold gardens lying between the stone porches and the elm-shadowed lawn,\u003cbr\u003enothing, one would think, could possibly exist but leisured and pleasant\u003cbr\u003eexistence: even the busy streets of the old city, outside the crumbling\u003cbr\u003egateway, seem, for the moment, far off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn one of the oldest of these houses, half hidden behind trees and\u003cbr\u003eshrubs in a corner of the Close, three people sat at breakfast one fine\u003cbr\u003eMay morning. The room in which they sat was in keeping with the old\u003cbr\u003ehouse and its surroundings--a long, low-ceilinged room, with oak\u003cbr\u003epanelling around its walls, and oak beams across its roof--a room of\u003cbr\u003eold furniture, and, old pictures, and old books, its antique atmosphere\u003cbr\u003erelieved by great masses of flowers, set here and there in old china\u003cbr\u003ebowls: through its wide windows, the casements of which were thrown wide\u003cbr\u003eopen, there was an inviting prospect of a high-edged flower garden, and,\u003cbr\u003eseen in vistas through the trees and shrubberies, of patches of the west\u003cbr\u003efront of the Cathedral, now sombre and grey in shadow. But on the garden\u003cbr\u003eand into this flower-scented room the sun was shining gaily through the\u003cbr\u003etrees, and making gleams of light on the silver and china on the table\u003cbr\u003eand on the faces of the three people who sat around it.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082261283056,"sku":"2940013090439","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013090439_p0.jpg?v=1763576902","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013090439","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}