{"product_id":"2940013746169","title":"Harvey Garrard's Crime","description":"Harvey Garrard, as his limousine crawled over London Bridge and\u003cbr\u003eturned into the dingy streets beyond, leaned forward in his seat\u003cbr\u003elooking out of the window with the half-weary anticipation of one\u003cbr\u003ewho revisits familiar but distasteful scenes. There was a faint\u003cbr\u003eair of disgust in his expression as the well-known odours of the\u003cbr\u003eneighbourhood assailed his nostrils. Forty-eight hours ago he had\u003cbr\u003ebeen living in a paradise of mimosa and roses warmed by Riviera\u003cbr\u003esunshine, his senses reacting pleasurably to the mild excitement,\u003cbr\u003ethe music and the gaiety of Monte Carlo. The malodorous atmosphere\u003cbr\u003eof Bermondsey, into which district he had now passed--the smell of\u003cbr\u003eleather, the sullen, brooding skies through which it seemed\u003cbr\u003eimpossible that the sun could ever force its way, all added to his\u003cbr\u003edepression. He glanced with distaste at the familiar landmarks\u003cbr\u003ewhich he passed, exchanged mechanical greetings with one or two\u003cbr\u003epassers-by whose names he failed to remember, and finally stepped\u003cbr\u003eout on to the pavement with the sigh of an unaccountable feeling of\u003cbr\u003edepression as his car drew up before the magnificent pile of\u003cbr\u003ebuildings, the pride of the whole neighbourhood, the enormous\u003cbr\u003ewarehouse built by his grandfather, Phineas Garrard, the Quaker,\u003cbr\u003enearly a hundred years ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You had better wait for a time, John,\" he told the chauffeur. \"If\u003cbr\u003eI have to stay here long, I'll send down word and you can go home\u003cbr\u003ein case your mistress requires you.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe man touched his hat and turned off his engine. Harvey Garrard\u003cbr\u003emounted the steps, pushed open the swing doors and made his\u003cbr\u003eleisurely way past the spacious suites of offices which occupied\u003cbr\u003ethe front of the ground floor into the open spaces beyond--spaces\u003cbr\u003epiled with great stacks of all descriptions of sole leather, from\u003cbr\u003ethe odour of which he shrank once more with a little instinctive\u003cbr\u003eaversion. With his hand upon the iron railing of the circular\u003cbr\u003estaircase which led to the first floor where his own private office\u003cbr\u003ewas situated he paused for a moment to look round. Perhaps because\u003cbr\u003ehe had just emerged from an utterly different world, he was\u003cbr\u003econscious of a queer sense of unreality in all he saw. He was\u003cbr\u003eunable to link together the past and the present. It seemed to him\u003cbr\u003eindeed that the men in their aprons and overalls who moved\u003cbr\u003ebackwards and forwards were like the ghosts of themselves rather\u003cbr\u003ethan actual human beings. Reminiscences of past years here in\u003cbr\u003ethese surroundings puzzled at the same time that they depressed\u003cbr\u003ehim. The clerks in the offices--he could see them through the\u003cbr\u003eglass partition--were all grey-headed, all seemed to bend a little\u003cbr\u003ewearily over their tasks. Many of their faces were familiar but\u003cbr\u003eall seemed changed. It was the same thing with the porters. He\u003cbr\u003ecalled one of them to him--one of the few whose name he remembered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, James,\" he said, \"still working as hard as ever?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe man shook his head doubtfully\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No chance of that nowadays, sir,\" he replied. \"There ain't enough\u003cbr\u003eto do to keep any of us busy.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Business bad, eh?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Bad enough in our department anyway, sir,\" was the somewhat\u003cbr\u003edepressed admission.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis master turned away with a nod and mounted the winding stairway.\u003cbr\u003eArrived on the first floor he paused and looked downward once more\u003cbr\u003eat the great room below. A vague sense of uneasiness, which had at\u003cbr\u003eodd times assailed him during the last six months, took to itself\u003cbr\u003every definite shape in those few moments. The change in his\u003cbr\u003esurroundings was too apparent to exist only in his imagination; a\u003cbr\u003espirit of listlessness seemed to have taken the place of those old\u003cbr\u003edays of bustle and commotion. The huge stacks of leather looked as\u003cbr\u003ethough they had lain undisturbed for many months, the warehousemen,\u003cbr\u003eof whom there were a sufficient number in evidence, seemed to be\u003cbr\u003eoccupying themselves with purely trivial tasks. After a brief but\u003cbr\u003epuzzled contemplation he turned away, acknowledged mechanically the\u003cbr\u003esalutations of the salesmen whose counters he passed, and entered\u003cbr\u003ehis own office--a spacious apartment with a thick carpet upon the\u003cbr\u003efloor, filled with heavy Victorian furniture and hung with oil\u003cbr\u003epaintings of various members of the firm. The window was open, but\u003cbr\u003ethe atmosphere was still musty after many months of disuse. The\u003cbr\u003ehandsome table was carefully dusted but bare except for a clean\u003cbr\u003esheet of blotting paper and a massive inkstand. Harvey hung up his\u003cbr\u003ehat on a huge wooden peg, seated himself in the familiar chair and\u003cbr\u003erang the bell.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070260330736,"sku":"2940013746169","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013746169_p0.jpg?v=1763589684","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013746169","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}