{"product_id":"2940013693395","title":"Prelude to Waking","description":"I first met Merlin in Chicago. We were there on cognate business. I had\u003cbr\u003emy flipper shattered early in the war and through my diplomatic\u003cbr\u003econnexions, and being a bright young man, was told-off to cross the\u003cbr\u003eAtlantic in the cause of inducing the mighty Republic to mop up her\u003cbr\u003emilitary glory on the Allies' side of the Western Front.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMerlin, being a bright young woman, had achieved the Balkan Fronts during\u003cbr\u003esome of the first great battles and retreats, and had been persuaded to\u003cbr\u003ecollect North American funds for the Women's War Hospitals. This, she\u003cbr\u003eexplained, took much more courage than to cross the Plain of Kossovo in a\u003cbr\u003eblizzard, to gather up human fragments under shell-fire around Bitolj, or\u003cbr\u003eto go on retreat from Ushtsche to Podgoritza over a trail where the howl\u003cbr\u003eof the wolves sometimes blotted out the sound of the pursuing guns, where\u003cbr\u003ethe lorries decorated the sides of the icy precipices, and where the weak\u003cbr\u003edropped out continuously: but there is an immolating streak of Puritanism\u003cbr\u003ein Merlin. It makes her on occasion see duty where every instinct rebels,\u003cbr\u003eand this, plus her adoration of the Serbs, sent her on that pilgrimage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe was whoppingly successful at drawing-room meetings. She is the kind\u003cbr\u003eof person by whom the rich love to be slanged, and all American cities\u003cbr\u003eare as rich in rich women as a Christmas cake in plums, most of them\u003cbr\u003eNonconformistically industrious in good works. True, some of them\u003cbr\u003eaccomplish little beyond the sentimental evaporation consequent upon\u003cbr\u003esitting in luxurious halls or \"parlours\" listening to talks about the\u003cbr\u003eunsavoury conditions of less efficient and less enterprising nationals,\u003cbr\u003ebut the harvest was high for Merlin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a toy theatre, artistic and luxurious as a jewel box, on a certain\u003cbr\u003eevening, some war lions--French, Belgian and British--were undergoing\u003cbr\u003eentertainment, and a Miss Giltinane and I had been yarded to wave the\u003cbr\u003eUnion Jack. During the obsequies (of enjoyment) my interest was aroused\u003cbr\u003eby overhearing a cool British voice insisting, \"I haven't time to undergo\u003cbr\u003eany private entertainment, really I haven't, though....\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of Chicago's Great Ladies, who was offering the entertainment, had\u003cbr\u003eother things besides wealth, and the wit to show them. \"You cute little\u003cbr\u003epiece of audacity!\" she exclaimed. \"Only a Britisher would have the nerve\u003cbr\u003eto be impatient with a woman of my dollars, even in such a bewitching\u003cbr\u003eway. Let's elope for the evening!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But what about my hospitals? If you could see those poor darling Serbs\u003cbr\u003estaggering along a trail of death and destruction, shivering with\u003cbr\u003emalaria, with nothing in their knapsacks but a sodden hit of\u003cbr\u003ebread--nearly all holes! I'm tied on this ghastly collection wheel.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'll give you the biggest donation of anyone in Chicago,\" said the Great\u003cbr\u003eLady, \"if you'll slip right out now and spend the evening with me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Righto! That's a bargain. I'm engaged,\" said Miss Giltinane. Off they\u003cbr\u003ewent together, the rich woman with a protecting arm around the poor one,\u003cbr\u003eand agreeing that the merely rich should be compelled to wear their\u003cbr\u003eearrings in their noses to the end that the likes of Miss Giltinane and\u003cbr\u003ethe Great Lady should not be misled into wasting time on the likes of\u003cbr\u003esuch, i.e. the merely rich.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068913369328,"sku":"2940013693395","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013693395","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}