{"product_id":"2940013663725","title":"Master of the Mill","description":"The two women looked at each other with a smile of comprehension as\u003cbr\u003ethe old, old man who, considering his years, was still so amazingly\u003cbr\u003eactive, rose restlessly from his arm-chair to go to the northernmost\u003cbr\u003ewindow of the enormous hall in which they were sitting and to look,\u003cbr\u003eover the west end of the dark lake, at the mill.  He did this night\u003cbr\u003eafter night now; but there had been years when he had carefully\u003cbr\u003eavoided that view.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll three were in evening clothes; it was the custom to dress for\u003cbr\u003edinner, at the great house on the shelf of the hillside overlooking\u003cbr\u003ethe two arms of the lake.  The women were busy with embroidery; it\u003cbr\u003ewas rare that either of them spoke on these long evenings after\u003cbr\u003ethey had risen from table; and if there was occasion for an\u003cbr\u003eexchange of words, they were uttered under their breath.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe younger of the two, Lady Clark or Maud, as she was called by\u003cbr\u003eher intimates was the old man's daughter-in-law.  Though she was\u003cbr\u003estill in her early forties, she had, to all appearance, at least\u003cbr\u003efor an outsider, only one aim left in life, namely to ease the old\u003cbr\u003eman's lapse into that senility which had to come at last, long as\u003cbr\u003eit had been staved off by her husband's unexpected death more than\u003cbr\u003ea decade ago.  The older woman, Miss Charlebois, had once been the\u003cbr\u003e'companion' of Mrs Samuel Clark, the long-dead wife of the old man,\u003cbr\u003ea senator of Canada, who had gone to the window whence he looked at\u003cbr\u003ethe mill as if he must watch that nobody walked off with it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLife in the house, as was natural in a place which stood aside from\u003cbr\u003ethe main stream of life, followed a strict routine; and even Lady\u003cbr\u003eClark lived largely in the past, perhaps for the very reason that,\u003cbr\u003eas far as the mill went, the future was hers; she was its largest\u003cbr\u003eshareholder; and there was now only one other, the old man who had\u003cbr\u003ecertainly long since made her his heir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet it was doubtful whether either of the women realized what went\u003cbr\u003eon in the old man as he looked at that mill which towered up,\u003cbr\u003eseventeen stories high, at the foot of the lake, like a huge\u003cbr\u003epyramid whose truncated apex was in line with the summits of the\u003cbr\u003esurrounding hills.  The mill which, in a physical sense, he had\u003cbr\u003elargely created had been his love before he had owned it; it had\u003cbr\u003ebecome the object of his hatred after it had become his; it had\u003cbr\u003ealways ruled his destiny; it had been, it still was, the central\u003cbr\u003efact in his life; it had never permitted him to be entirely\u003cbr\u003ehimself; it had determined his every action.  The history of the\u003cbr\u003emill had been his history, beginning with the time when his father\u003cbr\u003ehad started to build it; and again beyond the time when his son,\u003cbr\u003ehaving done something to it of which he himself disapproved, was\u003cbr\u003ekilled by the stray shot of a striker.  Whatever had happened to\u003cbr\u003ehim, in his inner as well as his outer life, had been contingent\u003cbr\u003eupon its existence.  His father had forced it on him; his son had\u003cbr\u003ethrown it back on his shoulders.  It had led a life of its own,\u003cbr\u003emore potent, more decisive than the life of any mere human being.\u003cbr\u003eThe individual destinies connected with it had merely woven\u003cbr\u003earabesques around it.  But, perhaps naturally, it was these living\u003cbr\u003earabesques which held the old man's thought.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47156894564592,"sku":"2940013663725","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013663725_p0.jpg?v=1763584051","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013663725","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}