{"product_id":"2940013653030","title":"THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF COOMBE","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe history of the circumstances about to be related began many\u003cbr\u003eyears ago--or so it seems in these days. It began, at least, years\u003cbr\u003ebefore the world being rocked to and fro revealed in the pause\u003cbr\u003ebetween each of its heavings some startling suggestion of a new\u003cbr\u003earrangement of its kaleidoscopic particles, and then immediately\u003cbr\u003ea re-arrangement, and another and another until all belief in a\u003cbr\u003epermanency of design seemed lost, and the inhabitants of the earth\u003cbr\u003ewaited, helplessly gazing at changing stars and colours in a degree\u003cbr\u003eof mental chaos.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts opening incidents may be dated from a period when people\u003cbr\u003estill had reason to believe in permanency and had indeed many of\u003cbr\u003ethem--sometimes through ingenuousness, sometimes through stupidity\u003cbr\u003eof type--acquired a singular confidence in the importance and\u003cbr\u003estability of their possessions, desires, ambitions and forms of\u003cbr\u003econviction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon at the time, in common with other great capitals, felt\u003cbr\u003eitself rather final though priding itself on being much more fluid\u003cbr\u003eand adaptable than it had been fifty years previously. In speaking\u003cbr\u003eof itself it at least dealt with fixed customs, and conditions\u003cbr\u003eand established facts connected with them--which gave rise to\u003cbr\u003ebrilliant--or dull--witticisms.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of these, heard not infrequently, was to the effect that--in\u003cbr\u003eLondon--one might live under an umbrella if one lived under it in\u003cbr\u003ethe right neighbourhood and on the right side of the street, which\u003cbr\u003eaxiom is the reason that a certain child through the first six\u003cbr\u003eyears of her life sat on certain days staring out of a window\u003cbr\u003ein a small, dingy room on the top floor of a slice of a house on\u003cbr\u003ea narrow but highly fashionable London street and looked on at\u003cbr\u003ethe passing of motors, carriages and people in the dull afternoon\u003cbr\u003egrayness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe room was exalted above its station by being called The Day\u003cbr\u003eNursery and another room equally dingy and uninviting was known as\u003cbr\u003eThe Night Nursery. The slice of a house was inhabited by the very\u003cbr\u003epretty Mrs. Gareth-Lawless, its inordinate rent being reluctantly\u003cbr\u003epaid by her--apparently with the assistance of those \"ravens\" who\u003cbr\u003eare expected to supply the truly deserving. The rent was inordinate\u003cbr\u003eonly from the standpoint of one regarding it soberly in connection\u003cbr\u003ewith the character of the house itself which was a gaudy little\u003cbr\u003ekennel crowded between two comparatively stately mansions. On one\u003cbr\u003eside lived an inordinately rich South African millionaire, and\u003cbr\u003eon the other an inordinately exalted person of title, which facts\u003cbr\u003ecombined to form sufficient grounds for a certain inordinateness\u003cbr\u003eof rent.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152724410608,"sku":"2940013653030","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013653030_p0.jpg?v=1763583946","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013653030","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}