{"product_id":"2940013691124","title":"Mother Mason","description":"Mother sat in front of her Circassian walnut dressing table, her f--,\u003cbr\u003eno, PLUMP form enveloped in a lavender and green, chrysanthemum-\u003cbr\u003ecovered, stork-bordered kimono, and surveyed herself in the glass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMother was Mrs. Henry Y. Mason, and in Springtown, Nebraska, when\u003cbr\u003eone says \"Henry Y.\" it conveys, proportionately, the same\u003cbr\u003esignificance that it carries when the rest of the world says \"John\u003cbr\u003eD.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was eleven o'clock at night, which is late for Springtown.\u003cbr\u003eMother had set her bread before climbing, rather pantingly, the\u003cbr\u003ewide mahogany stairs.  There is something symbolical in that\u003cbr\u003estatement, illustrative of Mother's life.  She had been promoted to\u003cbr\u003ea mahogany stairway, but she had clung to her own bread making.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree diamond rings just removed from Mother's plump hand lay on\u003cbr\u003ethe Cluny-edged cover of the dressing table.  These represented\u003cbr\u003eepochs in the family life.  The modest little diamond stood for the\u003cbr\u003eday that Henry left bookkeeping behind and became assistant\u003cbr\u003ecashier.  The middle-sized diamond belonged to his cashier days.\u003cbr\u003eThe big, bold diamond was Henry Y. as president of the First\u003cbr\u003eNational Bank of Springtown.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMother was tired and nervous to-night.  She felt irritable, old,\u003cbr\u003eand grieved--all of which was utterly foreign to her usual sunny\u003cbr\u003edisposition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe took off the glasses that covered her blue eyes.  It was just\u003cbr\u003eher luck, she thought crossly, that she couldn't even wear\u003cbr\u003eeyeglasses.  They simply would not stay on her nose.  Deprecatingly\u003cbr\u003eshe wrinkled that fat, broad member.  Then she removed and laid on\u003cbr\u003ethe table a thick, grayish braid of silky hair that had formed her\u003cbr\u003every good-looking coiffure, and let down a limited, not to say\u003cbr\u003escant, amount of locks that were fastened on as Nature--then\u003cbr\u003eevidently in parsimonious mood--had intended.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith apparent disgust she leaned forward under the lights that\u003cbr\u003eglowed rosily from their Dresden holders and scanned the features\u003cbr\u003ewhich looked back at her from the clear, oh, VERY clear, beveled\u003cbr\u003eglass.  She might have seen that her skin was as fair and soft and\u003cbr\u003epink as a girl's, that her mouth and eyes showed deep-seated humor,\u003cbr\u003ethat her face radiated character.  But in her unusual mood of\u003cbr\u003eintrospection she could find nothing but flaws.  The eyes looked\u003cbr\u003eweak and nearsighted without their glasses.  The chin--like a two-\u003cbr\u003epart story, that chin gave every evidence of stopping, and then to\u003cbr\u003eone's surprise went merrily on.  She leaned closer to the glass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well,\" Mother said dryly, reaching for manicure scissors, \"that is\u003cbr\u003eTHE LIMIT!\"  Living with a houseful of young people as she did,\u003cbr\u003eMother's English had in no way been neglected.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen, as though to let Fate do its worst, and looking cautiously\u003cbr\u003earound--for she was very sensitive about it--Mother took from her\u003cbr\u003emouth a lower plate of artificial teeth.  Immediately, out of\u003cbr\u003eobedience to nature's law that there shall be no vacuum, her soft\u003cbr\u003elower lip rushed in to fill the void.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Pretty creature, am I not?\" she grumbled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust at this point, we opine, every one will say, \"Ah!  No doubt\u003cbr\u003ethe president of the First National Bank is showing symptoms of\u003cbr\u003ebeing attracted elsewhere!\"  Not so.  Mother had only to turn her\u003cbr\u003eplump self around to see the long figure of that highly efficient\u003cbr\u003efinancier stretched out in its black-and-white-checked tennis-\u003cbr\u003eflannel nightgown, sleeping the sleep of the model citizen and\u003cbr\u003efather.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083152212208,"sku":"2940013691124","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013691124_p0.jpg?v=1763584027","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013691124","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}