{"product_id":"2940013703063","title":"The Mummy's Foot and other stories","description":"I had entered, in an idle mood, the shop of one of those curiosity-\u003cbr\u003evenders, who are called marchands de bric-a-brac in that Parisian \u003cbr\u003eargot which is so perfectly unintelligible elsewhere in France.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou have doubtless glanced occasionally through the windows of some of\u003cbr\u003ethese shops, which have become so numerous now that it is fashionable\u003cbr\u003eto buy antiquated furniture, and that every petty stock-broker thinks\u003cbr\u003ehe must have his chambre au moyen age.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is one thing there which clings alike to the shop of the dealer\u003cbr\u003ein old iron, the wareroom of the tapestry-maker, the laboratory of the\u003cbr\u003echemist, and the studio of the painter:--in all those gloomy dens\u003cbr\u003ewhere a furtive daylight filters in through the window-shutters, the\u003cbr\u003emost manifestly ancient thing is dust;--the cobwebs are more authentic\u003cbr\u003ethan the guimp laces; and the old pear-tree furniture on exhibition is\u003cbr\u003eactually younger than the mahogany which arrived but yesterday from\u003cbr\u003eAmerica.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe warehouse of my bric-a-brac dealer was a veritable Capharnaum; all\u003cbr\u003eages and all nations seemed to have made their rendezvous there; an\u003cbr\u003eEtruscan lamp of red clay stood upon a Boule cabinet, with ebony\u003cbr\u003epanels, brightly striped by lines of inlaid brass; a duchess of the\u003cbr\u003ecourt of Louis XV nonchalantly extended her fawn-like feet under a\u003cbr\u003emassive table of the time of Louis XIII with heavy spiral supports of\u003cbr\u003eoak, and carven designs of chimeras and foliage intermingled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpon the denticulated shelves of several sideboards glittered immense\u003cbr\u003eJapanese dishes with red and blue designs relieved by gilded hatching;\u003cbr\u003eside by side with enameled works by Bernard Palissy, representing\u003cbr\u003eserpents, frogs, and lizards in relief.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom disemboweled cabinets escaped cascades of silver-lustrous Chinese\u003cbr\u003esilks and waves of tinsel, which an oblique sunbeam shot through with\u003cbr\u003eluminous beads; while portraits of every era, in frames more or less\u003cbr\u003etarnished, smiled through their yellow varnish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe striped breastplate of a damascened suit of Milanese armor\u003cbr\u003eglittered in one corner; Loves and Nymphs of porcelain; Chinese\u003cbr\u003eGrotesques, vases of celadon and crackle-ware; Saxon and old Souvres\u003cbr\u003ecups encumbered the shelves and nooks of the apartment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe dealer followed me closely through the tortuous way contrived\u003cbr\u003ebetween the piles of furniture; warding off with his hands the\u003cbr\u003ehazardous sweep of my coat-skirts; watching my elbows with the uneasy\u003cbr\u003eattention of an antiquarian and a usurer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a singular face that of the merchant:--an immense skull,\u003cbr\u003epolished like a knee, and surrounded by a thin aureole of white hair,\u003cbr\u003ewhich brought out the clear salmon tint of his complexion all the more\u003cbr\u003estrikingly, lent him a false aspect of patriarchal bonhomie,\u003cbr\u003ecounteracted, however, by the scintillation of two little yellow eyes\u003cbr\u003ewhich trembled in their orbits like two louis-d'or upon quicksilver.\u003cbr\u003eThe curve of his nose presented an aquiline silhouette, which\u003cbr\u003esuggested the Oriental or Jewish type. His hands--thin, slender, full\u003cbr\u003eof nerves which projected like strings upon the finger-board of a\u003cbr\u003eviolin, and armed with claws like those on the terminations of bats'\u003cbr\u003ewings--shook with senile trembling; but those convulsively agitated\u003cbr\u003ehands became firmer than steel pincers or lobsters' claws when they\u003cbr\u003elifted any precious article--an onyx cup, a Venetian glass, or a dish\u003cbr\u003eof Bohemian crystal. This strange old man had an aspect so thoroughly\u003cbr\u003erabbinical and cabalistic that he would have been burnt on the mere\u003cbr\u003etestimony of his face three centuries ago.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073765687536,"sku":"2940013703063","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013703063_p0.jpg?v=1763584176","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013703063","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}