{"product_id":"2940013693227","title":"The Plumed Serpent","description":"It was the Sunday after Easter, and the last bull-fight of the\u003cbr\u003eseason in Mexico City.  Four special bulls had been brought over\u003cbr\u003efrom Spain for the occasion, since Spanish bulls are more fiery\u003cbr\u003ethan Mexican.  Perhaps it is the altitude, perhaps just the spirit\u003cbr\u003eof the western Continent which is to blame for the lack of 'pep',\u003cbr\u003eas Owen put it, in the native animal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough Owen, who was a great socialist, disapproved of bull-\u003cbr\u003efights, 'We have never seen one.  We shall have to go,' he said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Oh yes, I think we must see it,' said Kate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'And it's our last chance,' said Owen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAway he rushed to the place where they sold tickets, to book seats,\u003cbr\u003eand Kate went with him.  As she came into the street, her heart\u003cbr\u003esank.  It was as if some little person inside her were sulking and\u003cbr\u003eresisting.  Neither she nor Owen spoke much Spanish, there was a\u003cbr\u003efluster at the ticket place, and an unpleasant individual came\u003cbr\u003eforward to talk American for them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was obvious they ought to buy tickets for the 'Shade.'  But they\u003cbr\u003ewanted to economize, and Owen said he preferred to sit among the\u003cbr\u003ecrowd, therefore, against the resistance of the ticket man and the\u003cbr\u003eonlookers, they bought reserved seats in the 'Sun.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe show was on Sunday afternoon.  All the tram-cars and the\u003cbr\u003efrightful little Ford omnibuses called camions were labelled\u003cbr\u003eTorero, and were surging away towards Chapultepec.  Kate felt that\u003cbr\u003esudden dark feeling, that she didn't want to go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I'm not very keen on going,' she said to Owen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Oh, but why not?  I don't believe in them on principle, but we've\u003cbr\u003enever seen one, so we shall HAVE to go.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOwen was an American, Kate was Irish.  'Never having seen one'\u003cbr\u003emeant 'having to go.'  But it was American logic rather than Irish,\u003cbr\u003eand Kate only let herself be overcome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVilliers of course was keen.  But then he too was American, and he\u003cbr\u003etoo had never seen one, and being younger, more than anybody he HAD\u003cbr\u003eto go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey got into a Ford taxi and went.  The busted car careered away\u003cbr\u003edown the wide dismal street of asphalt and stone and Sunday\u003cbr\u003edreariness.  Stone buildings in Mexico have a peculiar hard, dry\u003cbr\u003edreariness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe taxi drew up in a side street under the big iron scaffolding of\u003cbr\u003ethe stadium.  In the gutters, rather lousy men were selling pulque\u003cbr\u003eand sweets, cakes, fruit, and greasy food.  Crazy motorcars rushed\u003cbr\u003eup and hobbled away.  Little soldiers in washed-out cotton\u003cbr\u003euniforms, pinky drab, hung around an entrance.  Above all loomed\u003cbr\u003ethe network iron frame of the huge, ugly stadium.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKate felt she was going to prison.  But Owen excitedly surged to\u003cbr\u003ethe entrance that corresponded to his ticket.  In the depths of\u003cbr\u003ehim, he too didn't want to go.  But he was a born American, and if\u003cbr\u003eanything was on show, he had to see it.  That was 'Life.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe man who took the tickets at the entrance, suddenly, as they\u003cbr\u003ewere passing in, stood in front of Owen, put both his hands on\u003cbr\u003eOwen's chest, and pawed down the front of Owen's body.  Owen\u003cbr\u003estarted, bridled, transfixed for a moment.  The fellow stood aside.\u003cbr\u003eKate remained petrified.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen Owen jerked into a smiling composure as the man waved them on.\u003cbr\u003e'Feeling for fire-arms!' he said, rolling his eyes with pleased\u003cbr\u003eexcitement at Kate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut she had not got over the shock of horror, fearing the fellow\u003cbr\u003emight paw her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey emerged out of a tunnel in the hollow of the concrete-and-iron\u003cbr\u003eamphitheatre.  A real gutter-lout came to look at their counterslips,\u003cbr\u003eto see which seats they had booked.  He jerked his head downwards,\u003cbr\u003eand slouched off.  Now Kate knew she was in a trap--a big concrete\u003cbr\u003ebeetle trap.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey dropped down the concrete steps till they were only three\u003cbr\u003etiers from the bottom.  That was their row.  They were to sit on\u003cbr\u003ethe concrete, with a loop of thick iron between each numbered seat.\u003cbr\u003eThis was a reserved place in the 'Sun.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKate sat gingerly between her two iron loops, and looked vaguely\u003cbr\u003earound.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I think it's thrilling!' she said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike most modern people, she had a will-to-happiness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Isn't it thrilling?' cried Owen, whose will-to-happiness was\u003cbr\u003ealmost a mania.  'Don't you think so, Bud?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Why, yes, I think it may be,' said Villiers, non-committal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut then Villiers was young, he was only over twenty, while Owen\u003cbr\u003ewas over forty.  The younger generation calculates its 'happiness'\u003cbr\u003ein a more business-like fashion.  Villiers was out after a thrill,\u003cbr\u003ebut he wasn't going to say he'd got one till he'd got it.  Kate and\u003cbr\u003eOwen--Kate was also nearly forty--must enthuse a thrill, out of a\u003cbr\u003esort of politeness to the great Show-man, Providence.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083152081136,"sku":"2940013693227","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013693227_p0.jpg?v=1763584342","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013693227","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}