{"product_id":"2940013703018","title":"Mrs Miniver","description":"MRS. Miniver woke up one morning with a sense of doom, a knowledge that\u003cbr\u003ethe day contained something to be dreaded. It was not a crushing weight,\u003cbr\u003esuch as an operation, or seeing one's best friend off to live in\u003cbr\u003eTasmania; nor was it anything so light as a committee meeting, or a deaf\u003cbr\u003euncle to tea: it was a kind of welter-weight doom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first it puzzled her. So far as she knew, she had no appointments that\u003cbr\u003eday, either pleasant or unpleasant, and that in itself was good. To be\u003cbr\u003eentirely at leisure for one day is to be for one day an immortal:\u003cbr\u003eaccording to the Chinese proverb she ought to have been feeling god-like.\u003cbr\u003eBut the small, dull weight continued to drag and nag.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eClem put his head in, dishevelled from a bath. Not for the first time,\u003cbr\u003eshe felt thankful that she had married a man whose face in the ensuing\u003cbr\u003esixteen years had tended to become sardonic rather than sleek. It was\u003cbr\u003edifficult to tell, when people were young and their cheek-lines were\u003cbr\u003estill pencilled and delible. Those beautiful long lean young men so often\u003cbr\u003efilled out into stage churchwardens at forty-five. But she had been\u003cbr\u003elucky, or had a flair; Clem's good looks were wearing well. The great\u003cbr\u003ething, perhaps, was not to be too successful too young.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the moment his expression was anything but sardonic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She ought to be here by nine,\" he said eagerly, and vanished.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Miniver remembered with a bump, felt dismayed, knew that her dismay\u003cbr\u003ewas unreasonable, and tried to argue it out of existence. A new car was a\u003cbr\u003ething to be pleased over; it was high time they had one. The old\u003cbr\u003eLeadbetter had got to the stage when nothing less than an expensive\u003cbr\u003eoverhaul would do any good; it had developed sinister fumes, elusive\u003cbr\u003enoises, incurable draughts; it was tiring for Clem on his long drives.\u003cbr\u003eAnd a week ago, when Clem, straight from the Motor Show, had spent the\u003cbr\u003ewhole evening musing happily over catalogues, she had realized that the\u003cbr\u003egame was up. Her usual attitude--that they didn't really need a new car\u003cbr\u003e--was plainly untenable, and this time she could not even fall back upon\u003cbr\u003ea plea for economy. They could perfectly well afford it now. Clem's plans\u003cbr\u003efor the new building estate had gone through; and there was the\u003cbr\u003eVanderhoops' country house as well--a plum. Besides, this scene had\u003cbr\u003ebeen replayed, with variations, many times, and they both knew that the\u003cbr\u003ebasis of her invariable reluctance about new cars was not thrift but\u003cbr\u003esentiment. She simply could not endure the moment when the old one was\u003cbr\u003edriven away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Miniver was a fool about inanimate objects. She had once bid\u003cbr\u003efuriously at an auction for a lot described as \"Twelve kitchen chairs;\u003cbr\u003ealso a small wicker knife-basket.\" Clem, knowing the size of their\u003cbr\u003ekitchen, made urgent signals to her across the room. She stopped bidding,\u003cbr\u003eand the lot was knocked down to someone else for more than its value by a\u003cbr\u003egrateful but mystified auctioneer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You got mixed up in the lot numbers, didn't you?\" Clem said afterwards.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No,\" she said, guiltily. \"I'm awfully sorry. It was that knife-basket. I\u003cbr\u003esuddenly thought--so wretched not to be grand enough to be in a lot by\u003cbr\u003eitself. Just tagged on to kitchen chairs like that. Clem--a small\u003cbr\u003ewicker knife-basket...\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073755431152,"sku":"2940013703018","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013703018_p0.jpg?v=1763584752","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013703018","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}