{"product_id":"2940013691674","title":"The Novel of the Black Seal","description":"I must now give you some fuller particulars of my history. I am the\u003cbr\u003edaughter of a civil engineer, Steven Lally by name, who was so\u003cbr\u003eunfortunate as to die suddenly at the outset of his career, and before\u003cbr\u003ehe had accumulated sufficient means to support his wife and her two\u003cbr\u003echildren.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy mother contrived to keep the small household going on resources which\u003cbr\u003emust have been incredibly small; we lived in a remote country village,\u003cbr\u003ebecause most of the necessaries of life were cheaper than in a town, but\u003cbr\u003eeven so we were brought up with the severest economy. My father was a\u003cbr\u003eclever and well-read man, and left behind him a small but select\u003cbr\u003ecollection of books, containing the best Greek, Latin, and English\u003cbr\u003eclassics, and these books were the only amusement we possessed. My\u003cbr\u003ebrother, I remember, learnt Latin out of Descartes's _Meditationes_, and\u003cbr\u003eI, in place of the little tales which children are usually told to read,\u003cbr\u003ehad nothing more charming than a translation of the _Gesta Romanorum_.\u003cbr\u003eWe grew up thus, quiet and studious children, and in course of time my\u003cbr\u003ebrother provided for himself in the manner I have mentioned. I continued\u003cbr\u003eto live at home: my poor mother had become an invalid, and demanded my\u003cbr\u003econtinual care, and about two years ago she died after many months of\u003cbr\u003epainful illness. My situation was a terrible one; the shabby furniture\u003cbr\u003ebarely sufficed to pay the debts I had been forced to contract, and the\u003cbr\u003ebooks I dispatched to my brother, knowing how he would value them. I was\u003cbr\u003eabsolutely alone; I was aware how poorly my brother was paid; and though\u003cbr\u003eI came up to London in the hope of finding employment, with the\u003cbr\u003eunderstanding that he would defray my expenses, I swore it should only\u003cbr\u003ebe for a month, and that if I could not in that time find some work I\u003cbr\u003ewould starve rather than deprive him of the few miserable pounds he had\u003cbr\u003elaid by for his day of trouble. I took a little room in a distant\u003cbr\u003esuburb; the cheapest that I could find; I lived on bread and tea, and I\u003cbr\u003espent my time in vain answering of advertisements, and vainer walks to\u003cbr\u003eaddresses I had noted. Day followed on day, and week on week, and still\u003cbr\u003eI was unsuccessful, till at last the term I had appointed drew to a\u003cbr\u003eclose, and I saw before me the grim prospect of slowly dying of\u003cbr\u003estarvation. My landlady was good-natured in her way; she knew the\u003cbr\u003eslenderness of my means, and I am sure that she would not have turned me\u003cbr\u003eout of doors; it remained for me then to go away, and to try to die in\u003cbr\u003esome quiet place. It was winter then, and a thick white fog gathered in\u003cbr\u003ethe early part of the afternoon, becoming more dense as the day wore on;\u003cbr\u003eit was a Sunday, I remember, and the people of the house were at chapel.\u003cbr\u003eAt about three o'clock I crept out and walked away as quickly as I\u003cbr\u003ecould, for I was weak from abstinence. The white mist wrapped all the\u003cbr\u003estreets in silence, a hard frost had gathered thick upon the bare\u003cbr\u003ebranches of the trees, and frost crystals glittered on the wooden\u003cbr\u003efences, and on the cold, cruel ground beneath my feet. I walked on,\u003cbr\u003eturning to right and left in utter haphazard, without caring to look up\u003cbr\u003eat the names of the streets, and all that I remember of my walk on that\u003cbr\u003eSunday afternoon seems but the broken fragments of an evil dream. In a\u003cbr\u003econfused vision I stumbled on, through roads half town and half country,\u003cbr\u003egrey fields melting into the cloudy world of mist on one side of me, and\u003cbr\u003eon the other comfortable villas with a glow of firelight flickering on\u003cbr\u003ethe walls, but all unreal; red brick walls and lighted windows, vague\u003cbr\u003etrees, and glimmering country, gas-lamps beginning to star the white\u003cbr\u003eshadows, the vanishing perspectives of the railway line beneath high\u003cbr\u003eembankments, the green and red of the signal lamps--all these were but\u003cbr\u003emomentary pictures flashed on my tired brain and senses numbed by\u003cbr\u003ehunger. Now and then I would hear a quick step ringing on the iron road,\u003cbr\u003eand men would pass me well wrapped up, walking fast for the sake of\u003cbr\u003ewarmth, and no doubt eagerly foretasting the pleasures of a glowing\u003cbr\u003ehearth, with curtains tightly drawn about the frosted panes, and the\u003cbr\u003ewelcomes of their friends, but as the early evening darkened and night\u003cbr\u003eapproached, foot-passengers got fewer and fewer, and I passed through\u003cbr\u003estreet after street alone. In the white silence I stumbled on, as\u003cbr\u003edesolate as if I trod the streets of a buried city; and as I grew more\u003cbr\u003eweak and exhausted, something of the horror of death was folding thickly\u003cbr\u003eround my heart. Suddenly, as I turned a corner, some one accosted me\u003cbr\u003ecourteously beneath the lamp-post, and I heard a voice asking if I could\u003cbr\u003ekindly point the way to Avon Road.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083153522928,"sku":"2940013691674","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013691674_p0.jpg?v=1763584035","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013691674","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}