{"product_id":"2940013740501","title":"A Mysterious Portrait","description":"I remember some years ago that I went to spend a Christmas with an old\u003cbr\u003efriend who was a bachelor. He might, perhaps, have been verging on\u003cbr\u003esixty at the time of my visit. On his study wall hung the portrait--\u003cbr\u003emerely the face-of a singularly lovely woman. I did not like to ask\u003cbr\u003eany questions about it. There was no family likeness to him, and we\u003cbr\u003ealways thought that early in life he had been disappointed. But one\u003cbr\u003eday, seeing that I could hardly keep my eyes off it, he said to me, \"I\u003cbr\u003ehave had that picture for many years, although you have never seen it\u003cbr\u003ebefore. If you like, I will tell you its history.\" He then told me the\u003cbr\u003efollowing story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In the year 1817, I was beginning life, and struggling to get a\u003cbr\u003eliving. I had just started in business. I was alone, without much\u003cbr\u003ecapital, and my whole energies were utterly absorbed in my adventure.\u003cbr\u003eIn those days the master, instead of employing a commercial traveler,\u003cbr\u003eoften used to travel himself, and one evening I had to start for the\u003cbr\u003eNorth to see some customers. I chose to go by night in order to save\u003cbr\u003etime, and as it was bitterly cold and I was weak in the chest, I\u003cbr\u003edetermined to take a place inside the coach. We left St. Martin's-le-\u003cbr\u003eGrand at about half-past eight, and I was the sole passenger. I could\u003cbr\u003enot sleep, but fell into a kind of doze, which was not sufficiently\u003cbr\u003edeep to prevent my rousing myself at every inn where we changed\u003cbr\u003ehorses. Nobody intruded upon me, and I continued in the same drowsy,\u003cbr\u003ehalf-waking, half-slumbering condition till we came to the last stage\u003cbr\u003ebefore reaching Eaton Socon. I was then thoroughly awake, and\u003cbr\u003econtinued awake until after the coach started. But presently I fell\u003cbr\u003esound asleep for, perhaps, half-an--hour, and woke suddenly. To my\u003cbr\u003egreat surprise I found a lady with me. How she came there I could not\u003cbr\u003econjecture. I was positive that she did not get in when the coach last\u003cbr\u003estopped. She sat at the opposite corner, so that I could see her well,\u003cbr\u003eand a more exquisite face I thought I had never beheld. It was not\u003cbr\u003equite English--rather pale, earnest and abstracted, and with a certain\u003cbr\u003eintentness about the eyes which denoted a mind accustomed to dwell\u003cbr\u003eupon ideal objects. I was not particularly shy with women, and perhaps\u003cbr\u003eif she had been any ordinary, pretty girl I might have struck up a\u003cbr\u003econversation with her. But I was dumb, for I hardly dared to intrude.\u003cbr\u003eIt would have been necessary to begin by some commonplaces, and\u003cbr\u003esomehow my lips refused the utterance of commonplaces. Nor was this\u003cbr\u003estrange. If I had happened to find myself opposite the great Lord\u003cbr\u003eByron in a coach I certainly should not have thrust myself upon him,\u003cbr\u003eand how should I dare to thrust myself upon a person who seemed as\u003cbr\u003egreat and grand as she, although I did not know her name? So I\u003cbr\u003eremained perfectly still, only venturing by the light of the moon to\u003cbr\u003ewatch her through my half-shut eyes. Just before we got to Eaton,\u003cbr\u003ealthough I was never more thoroughly or even excitedly awake in my\u003cbr\u003elife, I must have lost consciousness for a minute. I came to myself\u003cbr\u003ewhen the coach was pulling up at an inn. I looked round instantly, and\u003cbr\u003emy companion was gone. I jumped out on pretense of getting something\u003cbr\u003eto eat and drink, and hastily asked the guard where the lady who had\u003cbr\u003ejust got out was put into the coach. He said they had never stopped\u003cbr\u003esince they had last changed horses, and that I must have been\u003cbr\u003edreaming. He knew nothing about the lady, and he looked at me\u003cbr\u003esuspiciously, as if he thought I was drunk. I for my part was\u003cbr\u003eperfectly confident that I had not been deluded by an apparition of my\u003cbr\u003eown brain. I had never suffered from ghost-like visitations of any\u003cbr\u003ekind, and my thoughts, owing to my preoccupation with business, had\u003cbr\u003enot run upon women in any way whatever. More convincing still, I had\u003cbr\u003enoticed that the lady wore a light blue neckerchief; and when I went\u003cbr\u003eback into the coach I found that she had left it behind her. I took it\u003cbr\u003eup, and I have it to this day. You may imagine how my mind dwelt upon\u003cbr\u003ethat night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI got to Newcastle, did what I had to do, came back again, and made a\u003cbr\u003epoint this time of sleeping at Eaton Socon in order to make inquiries.\u003cbr\u003eEverybody recollected the arrival of the down coach by which I\u003cbr\u003etraveled, and everybody was perfectly sure that no lady was in it. I\u003cbr\u003eproduced the scarf, and asked whether anybody who lived near had been\u003cbr\u003eobserved to wear it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEaton is a little village, and all the people in it were as well known\u003cbr\u003eas if they belonged to one family, but nobody recognized it. It was\u003cbr\u003ecertainly not English. I thought about the affair for months, partly\u003cbr\u003ebecause I was smitten with my visitor, and partly because I was half\u003cbr\u003eafraid my brain had been a little upset by worry. However, in time,\u003cbr\u003ethe impression f","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070198202608,"sku":"2940013740501","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740501_p0.jpg?v=1763598216","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740501","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}