{"product_id":"2940013392250","title":"FELIX O'DAY","description":"Chapter I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBroadway on dry nights, or rather that part known as the Great White\u003cbr\u003eWay, is a crowded thoroughfare, dominated by lofty buildings, the\u003cbr\u003esky-line studded with constellations of colored signs pencilled in fire.\u003cbr\u003eBroadway on wet, rain-drenched nights is the fairy concourse of the\u003cbr\u003eWonder City of the World, its asphalt splashed with liquid jewels afloat\u003cbr\u003ein molten gold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcross this flood of frenzied brilliance surge hurrying mobs, dodging\u003cbr\u003ethe ceaseless traffic, trampling underfoot the wealth of the Indies,\u003cbr\u003estriding through pools of quicksilver, leaping gutters filled to the\u003cbr\u003ebrim with melted rubies--horse, car, and man so many black silhouettes\u003cbr\u003eagainst a tremulous sea of light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlong this blinding whirl blaze the playhouses, their wide\u003cbr\u003eportals aflame with crackling globes, toward which swarm bevies of\u003cbr\u003epleasure-seeking moths, their eyes dazzled by the glare. Some with heads\u003cbr\u003eand throats bare dart from costly broughams, the mountings of their\u003cbr\u003esleek, rain-varnished horses glittering in the flash of the electric\u003cbr\u003elamps. Others spring from out street cabs. Many come by twos and threes,\u003cbr\u003etheir skirts held high. Still others form a line, its head lost in\u003cbr\u003ea small side door. These are in drab and brown, with worsted shawls\u003cbr\u003etightly drawn across thin shoulders. Here, too, wedged in between shabby\u003cbr\u003emen, the collars of their coats muffling their chins, their backs to the\u003cbr\u003egrim policeman, stand keen-eyed newsboys and ragged street urchins, the\u003cbr\u003eprice of a gallery seat in their tightly closed fists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSoon the swash and flow of light flooding the street and sidewalks\u003cbr\u003eshines the clearer. Fewer dots and lumps of man, cab, and cart now cross\u003cbr\u003eits surface. The crowd has begun to thin out. The doors of the theatres\u003cbr\u003eare deserted; some flaunt signs of \"Standing Room Only.\" The cars still\u003cbr\u003efollow their routes, lunging and pausing like huge beetles; but much of\u003cbr\u003ethe wheel traffic has melted, with only here and there a cab or truck\u003cbr\u003ebetween which gold-splashed umbrellas pick a hazardous way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith the breaking of the silent dawn, shadowed in a lonely archway or\u003cbr\u003eon an abandoned doorstep the wet, bedraggled body of a hapless moth is\u003cbr\u003esometimes found, her iridescent wings flattened in the mud. Then for a\u003cbr\u003ebrief moment a cry of protest, or scorn, or pity goes up. The passers-by\u003cbr\u003eraise their hands in anger, draw their skirts aside in horror, or kneel\u003cbr\u003ein tenderness. It is the same the world over, and New York is no better\u003cbr\u003eand, for that matter, no worse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn one of these rain-drenched nights, some ten years or more ago, when\u003cbr\u003ethe streets were flooded with jewels, and the sky-line aflame, a man in\u003cbr\u003ea slouch hat, a wet mackintosh clinging to his broad shoulders, stood\u003cbr\u003eclose to the entrance of one of the principal playhouses along this\u003cbr\u003eGreat White Way. He had kept his place since the doors were opened, his\u003cbr\u003ehat-brim, pulled over his brow, his keen eye searching every face that\u003cbr\u003epassed. To all appearances he was but an idle looker-on, attracted by\u003cbr\u003ethe beauty of the women, and yet during all that time he had not moved,\u003cbr\u003enor had he been in the way, nor had he been observed even by the door\u003cbr\u003eman, the flap of the awning casting its shadow about him. Only once had\u003cbr\u003ehe strained forward, gazing intently, then again relaxed, settling into\u003cbr\u003ehis old position.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082611212528,"sku":"2940013392250","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013392250_p0.jpg?v=1763580654","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013392250","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}