{"product_id":"2940013750890","title":"Maid in Waiting","description":"The Bishop of Porthminster was sinking fast; they had sent for his\u003cbr\u003efour nephews, his two nieces and their one husband.  It was not\u003cbr\u003ethought that he would last the night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe who had been 'Cuffs' Cherrell (for so the name Charwell is\u003cbr\u003epronounced) to his cronies at Harrow and Cambridge in the 'sixties,\u003cbr\u003ethe Reverend Cuthbert Cherrell in his two London parishes, Canon\u003cbr\u003eCherrell in the days of his efflorescence as a preacher, and\u003cbr\u003eCuthbert Porthminster for the last eighteen years, had never\u003cbr\u003emarried.  For eighty-two years he had lived and for fifty-five,\u003cbr\u003ehaving been ordained rather late, had represented God upon certain\u003cbr\u003eportions of the earth.  This and the control of his normal\u003cbr\u003einstincts since the age of twenty-six had given to his face a\u003cbr\u003erepressed dignity which the approach of death did not disturb.\u003cbr\u003eHe awaited it almost quizzically, judging from the twist of his\u003cbr\u003eeyebrow and the tone in which he said so faintly to his nurse:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You will get a good sleep to-morrow, nurse.  I shall be punctual,\u003cbr\u003eno robes to put on.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe best wearer of robes in the whole episcopacy, the most\u003cbr\u003edistinguished in face and figure, maintaining to the end the\u003cbr\u003edandyism which had procured him the nickname 'Cuffs,' lay quite\u003cbr\u003estill, his grey hair brushed and his face like ivory.  He had been\u003cbr\u003ea bishop so long that no one knew now what he thought about death,\u003cbr\u003eor indeed about anything, except the prayer book, any change in\u003cbr\u003ewhich he had deprecated with determination.  In one never\u003cbr\u003eremarkable for expressing his feelings the ceremony of life had\u003cbr\u003eoverlaid the natural reticence, as embroidery and jewels will\u003cbr\u003edisguise the foundation stuff of vestment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lay in a room with mullion windows, an ascetic room in a\u003cbr\u003esixteenth-century house, close to the Cathedral, whose scent of age\u003cbr\u003ewas tempered but imperfectly by the September air coming in.  Some\u003cbr\u003ezinnias in an old vase on the window-sill made the only splash of\u003cbr\u003ecolour, and it was noticed by the nurse that his eyes scarcely left\u003cbr\u003eit, except to dose from time to time.  About six o'clock they\u003cbr\u003einformed him that all the family of his long-dead elder brother had\u003cbr\u003earrived.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ah!  See that they are comfortable.  I should like to see Adrian.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47176468594928,"sku":"2940013750890","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013750890_p0.jpg?v=1763589769","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013750890","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}