{"product_id":"2940013744264","title":"Vanessa","description":"At the sight of her son Judith's eyes and mouth broke into the\u003cbr\u003eloveliest smile that any member of the Herries family, there\u003cbr\u003epresent, had ever seen.  It was Judith Paris' hundredth birthday.\u003cbr\u003eThe Family was making a Presentation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdam bent down and kissed her.  Her tiny, trembling hand rested on\u003cbr\u003ethe velvet collar of his coat then lay against his cheek.  Her\u003cbr\u003etriumph was complete; her exceeding happiness overflowed so that,\u003cbr\u003elaughing though she was, tears rolled down her cheeks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfterwards, at the luncheon downstairs, Adam was to make the\u003cbr\u003espeech, but when the time came, the one that he made was very\u003cbr\u003efeeble.  Everyone (except of course Adam's wife, Margaret, and\u003cbr\u003eAdam's young daughter, Vanessa) agreed that he was no speaker; the\u003cbr\u003espeech of the occasion came, oddly enough, from Amery Herries, of\u003cbr\u003ewhom no one had expected very much.  There were more speeches at\u003cbr\u003ethe dinner later in the day--Timothy, Barney Newmark, Carey\u003cbr\u003eRockage, Captain Will Herries, all spoke--but it was Amery who was\u003cbr\u003eafterwards recalled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Damned good speech, d'you remember?' years later one Herries would\u003cbr\u003esay to another.  'At old Madame's Hundredth Birthday party up in\u003cbr\u003eCumberland . . .  Best speech ever I heard in my life.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdam was a failure.  He never could say anything in public, even\u003cbr\u003elong ago in his Chartist days.  More than that, he was thinking of\u003cbr\u003ehis mother, the old lady upstairs, all the time.  And more than\u003cbr\u003ethat again, he couldn't sound the right Herries note.  He was only\u003cbr\u003eQUARTER Herries anyway, and he simply wasn't able to think of them\u003cbr\u003ein the grand historical light that all the family, expectant round\u003cbr\u003ethe luncheon table, desired.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Amery could.  He thought of them all (including himself) in\u003cbr\u003eprecisely the grand manner.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll Adam said was:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I am sure we are all very happy to be here today for my mother's\u003cbr\u003ehundredth birthday.  You'll forgive me, I know, if I don't say very\u003cbr\u003emuch.  Not very good at expressing my feelings.  Yes--well--I know\u003cbr\u003ewhat you're all feeling.  We're all very proud of my mother and we\u003cbr\u003eall ought to be.  She's like the Queen--nothing can beat her.  I\u003cbr\u003edon't need to tell you how good she is.  Of course I know that\u003cbr\u003ebetter than the rest of you--naturally I would.  There's no one\u003cbr\u003elike her anywhere.  I ask you all to drink her health.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd so they did--with the greatest enthusiasm.  Nevertheless there\u003cbr\u003ewas a feeling of disappointment, for he had said nothing about the\u003cbr\u003eFamily--not a word.  It was expected of him.  After all, even\u003cbr\u003ethough he WAS illegitimate, his father had been of Herries blood.\u003cbr\u003eThey knew, they had always known, that Adam Paris failed at\u003cbr\u003eanything that he tried.  What could you expect of a fellow who had\u003cbr\u003eonce been a Chartist and approved of these Trades Unions, was\u003cbr\u003ealways on the wrong side, against Disraeli, in favour of tiresome\u003cbr\u003eagitators like Mr Plimsoll?  (They disliked any and every agitator.\u003cbr\u003eThey disapproved of agitation.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Amery made everything right again with HIS speech.  He didn't\u003cbr\u003elook his sixty-five years, so spare of figure and straight in the\u003cbr\u003eback; he had not run to seed like poor Garth, who led, it was\u003cbr\u003efeared, a most improvident and dissolute life.  Amery's speech was\u003cbr\u003eshort but entirely to the point:","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47180810486000,"sku":"2940013744264","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013744264_p0.jpg?v=1763589681","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013744264","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}