{"product_id":"2940013170780","title":"THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT","description":"As a matter of fact, Davenant was under no illusions concerning the\u003cbr\u003equality of the welcome his hostess was according him, though he found a\u003cbr\u003ecertain pleasure in being once more in her company. It was not a keen\u003cbr\u003epleasure, but neither was it an embarrassing one; it was exactly what he\u003cbr\u003esupposed it would be in case they ever met again--a blending on his part\u003cbr\u003eof curiosity, admiration, and reminiscent suffering out of which time\u003cbr\u003eand experience had taken the sting. He retained the memory of a minute\u003cbr\u003eof intense astonishment once upon a time, followed by some weeks, some\u003cbr\u003emonths perhaps, of angry humiliation; but the years between twenty-four\u003cbr\u003eand thirty-three are long and varied, generating in healthy natures\u003cbr\u003eplenty of saving common sense. Work, travel, and a widened knowledge of\u003cbr\u003emen and manners had so ripened Davenant's mind that he was able to see\u003cbr\u003ehis proposal now as Miss Guion must have seen it then, as something so\u003cbr\u003eincongruous and absurd as not only to need no consideration, but to call\u003cbr\u003efor no reply. Nevertheless, it was the refusal on her part of a reply,\u003cbr\u003eof the mere laconic No which was all that, in his heart of hearts, he\u003cbr\u003ehad ever expected, that rankled in him longest; but even that\u003cbr\u003emortification had passed, as far as he knew, into the limbo of extinct\u003cbr\u003eregrets. For her present superb air of having no recollection of his\u003cbr\u003eblunder he had nothing but commendation. It was as becoming to the\u003cbr\u003espirited grace of its wearer as a royal mantle to a queen. Carrying it\u003cbr\u003eas she did, with an easy, preoccupied affability that enabled her to\u003cbr\u003elook round him and over him and through him, to greet him and converse\u003cbr\u003ewith him, without seeming positively to take in the fact of his\u003cbr\u003eexistence, he was permitted to suppose the incident of their previous\u003cbr\u003eacquaintance, once so vital to himself, to have been forgotten. If this\u003cbr\u003ewere so, it would be nothing very strange, since a woman of\u003cbr\u003etwenty-seven, who has had much social experience, may be permitted to\u003cbr\u003elose sight of the more negligible of the conquests she has made as a\u003cbr\u003egirl of eighteen. She had asked him to dinner, and placed him honorably\u003cbr\u003eat her right; but words could not have made it plainer than it was that\u003cbr\u003ehe was but an accident to the occasion.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082370597104,"sku":"2940013170780","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013170780_p0.jpg?v=1763577740","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013170780","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}