{"product_id":"2940013106123","title":"CATRIONA","description":"CHAPTER I--A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBalfour, came forth of the British Linen Company, a porter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eattending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of these\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003emerchants bowing me from their doors.  Two days before, and even so\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003elate as yestermorning, I was like a beggar-man by the wayside, clad\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ein rags, brought down to my last shillings, my companion a\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003econdemned traitor, a price set on my own head for a crime with the\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003enews of which the country rang.  To-day I was served heir to my\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eposition in life, a landed laird, a bank porter by me carrying my\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003egold, recommendations in my pocket, and (in the words of the\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003esaying) the ball directly at my foot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere were two circumstances that served me as ballast to so much\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003esail.  The first was the very difficult and deadly business I had\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003estill to handle; the second, the place that I was in.  The tall,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eblack city, and the numbers and movement and noise of so many folk,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003emade a new world for me, after the moorland braes, the sea-sands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand the still country-sides that I had frequented up to then.  The\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethrong of the citizens in particular abashed me.  Rankeillor's son\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewas short and small in the girth; his clothes scarce held on me;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand it was plain I was ill qualified to strut in the front of a\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ebank-porter.  It was plain, if I did so, I should but set folk\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003elaughing, and (what was worse in my case) set them asking\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003equestions.  So that I behooved to come by some clothes of my own,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand in the meanwhile to walk by the porter's side, and put my hand\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eon his arm as though we were a pair of friends.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147460821232,"sku":"2940013106123","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013106123_p0.jpg?v=1763576544","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013106123","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}