{"product_id":"2940013682412","title":"The Scandal of Father Brown","description":"It would not be fair to record the adventures of Father Brown, without\u003cbr\u003eadmitting that he was once involved in a grave scandal. There still are\u003cbr\u003epersons, perhaps even of his own community, who would say that there was\u003cbr\u003ea sort of blot upon his name. It happened in a picturesque Mexican road\u003cbr\u003e- house of rather loose repute, as appeared later; and to some it seemed\u003cbr\u003ethat for once the priest had allowed a romantic streak in him, and his\u003cbr\u003esympathy for human weakness, to lead him into loose and unorthodox\u003cbr\u003eaction. The story in itself was a simple one; and perhaps the whole\u003cbr\u003esurprise of it consisted in its simplicity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBurning Troy began with Helen; this disgraceful story began with the\u003cbr\u003ebeauty of Hypatia Potter. Americans have a great power, which Europeans\u003cbr\u003edo not always appreciate, of creating institutions from below; that is\u003cbr\u003eby popular initiative. Like every other good thing, it has its lighter\u003cbr\u003easpects; one of which, as has been remarked by Mr Wells and others, is\u003cbr\u003ethat a person may become a public institution without becoming an\u003cbr\u003eofficial institution. A girl of great beauty or brilliancy will be a\u003cbr\u003esort of uncrowned queen, even if she is not a Film Star or the original\u003cbr\u003eof a Gibson Girl. Among those who had the fortune, or misfortune, to\u003cbr\u003eexist beautifully in public in this manner, was a certain Hypatia Hard,\u003cbr\u003ewho had passed through the preliminary stage of receiving florid\u003cbr\u003ecompliments in society paragraphs of the local press, to the position of\u003cbr\u003eone who is actually interviewed by real pressmen. On War and Peace and\u003cbr\u003ePatriotism and Prohibition and Evolution and the Bible she had made her\u003cbr\u003epronouncements with a charming smile; and if none of them seemed very\u003cbr\u003enear to the real grounds of her own reputation, it was almost equally\u003cbr\u003ehard to say what the grounds of her reputation really were. Beauty, and\u003cbr\u003ebeing the daughter of a rich man, are things not rare in her country;\u003cbr\u003ebut to these she added whatever it is that attracts the wandering eye of\u003cbr\u003ejournalism. Next to none of her admirers had even seen her, or even\u003cbr\u003ehoped to do so; and none of them could possibly derive any sordid\u003cbr\u003ebenefit from her father's wealth. It was simply a sort of popular\u003cbr\u003eromance, the modern substitute for mythology; and it laid the first\u003cbr\u003efoundations of the more turgid and tempestuous sort of romance in which\u003cbr\u003eshe was to figure later on; and in which many held that the reputation\u003cbr\u003eof Father Brown, as well as of others, had been blown to rags.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was accepted, sometimes romantically, sometimes resignedly, by those\u003cbr\u003ewhom American satire has named the Sob Sisters, that she had already\u003cbr\u003emarried a very worthy and respectable business man of the name of\u003cbr\u003ePotter. It was even possible to regard her for a moment as Mrs Potter,\u003cbr\u003eon the universal understanding that her husband was only the husband of\u003cbr\u003eMrs Potter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen came the Great Scandal, by which her friends and enemies were\u003cbr\u003ehorrified beyond their wildest hopes. Her name was coupled (as the queer\u003cbr\u003ephrase goes) with a literary man living in Mexico; in status an\u003cbr\u003eAmerican, but in spirit a very Spanish American. Unfortunately his vices\u003cbr\u003eresembled her virtues, in being good copy. He was no less a person than\u003cbr\u003ethe famous or infamous Rudel Romanes; the poet whose works had been so\u003cbr\u003euniversally popularized by being vetoed by libraries or prosecuted by\u003cbr\u003ethe police. Anyhow, her pure and placid star was seen in conjunction\u003cbr\u003ewith this comet. He was of the sort to be compared to a comet, being\u003cbr\u003ehairy and hot; the first in his portraits, the second in his poetry. He\u003cbr\u003ewas also destructive; the comet's tail was a trail of divorces, which\u003cbr\u003esome called his success as a lover and some his prolonged failure as a\u003cbr\u003ehusband. It was hard on Hypatia; there are disadvantages in conducting\u003cbr\u003ethe perfect private life in public; like a domestic interior in a shop -\u003cbr\u003ewindow. Interviewers reported doubtful utterances about Love's Larger\u003cbr\u003eLaw of Supreme Self - Realization. The Pagans applauded. The Sob\u003cbr\u003eSisterhood permitted themselves a note of romantic regret; some having\u003cbr\u003eeven the hardened audacity to quote from the poem of Maud Mueller, to\u003cbr\u003ethe effect that of all the words of tongue or pen, the saddest are 'It\u003cbr\u003emight have been.' And Mr Agar P. Rock, who hated the Sob Sisterhood with\u003cbr\u003ea holy and righteous hatred, said that in this case he thoroughly agreed\u003cbr\u003ewith Bret Harte's emendation of the poem:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'More sad are those we daily see; it is, but it hadn't ought to be.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Mr Rock was very firmly and rightly convinced that a very large\u003cbr\u003enumber of things hadn't ought to be. He was a slashing and savage critic\u003cbr\u003eof national degeneration, on the Minneapolis Meteor, and a bold and\u003cbr\u003ehonest man.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069082976496,"sku":"2940013682412","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013682412_p0.jpg?v=1763583928","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013682412","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}