{"product_id":"2940013683037","title":"Serapion","description":"It began because, meeting Nils Berquist in town one August\u003cbr\u003emorning, he dragged me off for luncheon at a little restaurant on a\u003cbr\u003eside street where he swore I would meet some of the rising geniuses of\u003cbr\u003ethe century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat we did meet was the commencement for me of such an\u003cbr\u003eextraordinary experience as befalls few men. At the time, however, the\u003cbr\u003ewhole affair seemed incidental, with a spice of grotesque but harmless\u003cbr\u003eabsurdity. Jimmy Moore and his Alicia! How could anyone, meeting them\u003cbr\u003eas I did, have believed a grimness behind their amusing eccentricity?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was just turned twenty-four that August day. A boy's guileless\u003cbr\u003eenthusiasm for the untried was still strong in me, coupled with a\u003cbr\u003etendency to make friends in all quarters, desirable or otherwise.\u003cbr\u003eAlmost anyone who liked me, I liked. My college years, very recently\u003cbr\u003eended, had seen me sworn comrade to a reckless and on-his-way-to-be-\u003cbr\u003enotorious son of plutocracy, while I was also well received in the\u003cbr\u003eroom which Nils Berquist sharing with two other embryo socialists of\u003cbr\u003efanatic dye. A certain ingenuous likableness must have been mine even\u003cbr\u003ethen, I think, to have gained me not only toleration, but real\u003cbr\u003efriendship in both camps.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBerquist was older than I by several years. He had earned his\u003cbr\u003ecollege days before enjoying them and, college ended, he dropped back\u003cbr\u003einto the struggle for existence and out of my sight--till I ran across\u003cbr\u003ehim in town that August day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo play host even at a very moderate luncheon must have been an\u003cbr\u003eextravagance for Nils, though I didn't think of that. He was a man\u003cbr\u003ewith whom one somehow never associated the idea of need. Tall, lean,\u003cbr\u003ewith a dark, long face, high cheekbones and deep eyes set well apart,\u003cbr\u003ehe dressed badly and walked the world in a careless air of ownership\u003cbr\u003ethat mere clothes could not in the least affect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis intimates knew him capable of vast, sudden enthusiasms, and\u003cbr\u003eequally vast depressions of the spirit. But up or down, he was Nils\u003cbr\u003eBerquist, sufficient unto himself, asking no favors, and always with\u003cbr\u003ean indefinable air of being well able to grant them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI admired and liked him, was very glad to see him again, and\u003cbr\u003echeerfully let him steer me around two corners and in the door of his\u003cbr\u003ebragged-of trysting place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn first entering, my friend cast an eye about the aggregation of\u003cbr\u003emore or less shabby individuals present and muttered: \"Not a soul\u003cbr\u003ehere!\" in a disappointed tone. Then, glimpsing a couple seated at a\u003cbr\u003ecorner table laid for four, he brightened a trifle and led me over to\u003cbr\u003ethem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNil's idea of formal presentation was always more brief than\u003cbr\u003eelaborate. After addressing the fair-haired, light-eyelashed, Palm-\u003cbr\u003eBeach-suited person on one side of the table as \"Jimmy\" and his vis-a-\u003cbr\u003evis, a darkly mysterious lady in a purple veil, as \"Alicia,\" he\u003cbr\u003ereferred to me casually as \"Clay,\" and considered the introduction\u003cbr\u003ecomplete.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145705537776,"sku":"2940013683037","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013683037_p0.jpg?v=1763584225","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013683037","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}