{"product_id":"2940013763463","title":"Limits and Renewals","description":"IN the days beyond compare and before the Judgments, a genius called\u003cbr\u003eGraydon foresaw that the advance of education and the standard of\u003cbr\u003eliving would submerge all mind-marks in one mudrush of standardised\u003cbr\u003ereading-matter, and so created the Fictional Supply Syndicate to meet\u003cbr\u003ethe demand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince a few days' work for him brought them more money than a week's\u003cbr\u003eelsewhere, he drew many young men--some now eminent--into his employ.\u003cbr\u003eHe bade them keep their eyes on the Sixpenny Dream Book, the Army and\u003cbr\u003eNavy Stores Catalogue (this for backgrounds and furniture as they\u003cbr\u003echanged), and The Hearthstone Friend, a weekly publication which\u003cbr\u003especialised unrivalledly in the domestic emotions. Yet, even so, youth\u003cbr\u003ewould not be denied, and some of the collaborated love-talk in\u003cbr\u003e'Passion Hath Peril,' and 'Ena's Lost Lovers,' and the account of the\u003cbr\u003emurder of the Earl in 'The Wickwire Tragedies'--to name but a few\u003cbr\u003emasterpieces now never mentioned for fear of blackmail--was as good as\u003cbr\u003eanything to which their authors signed their real names in more\u003cbr\u003edistinguished years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong the young ravens driven to roost awhile on Graydon's ark was\u003cbr\u003eJames Andrew Manallace--a darkish, slow northerner of the type that\u003cbr\u003edoes not ignite, but must be detonated. Given written or verbal\u003cbr\u003eoutlines of a plot, he was useless; but, with a half-dozen pictures\u003cbr\u003eround which to write his tale, he could astonish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd he adored that woman who afterwards became the mother of Vidal\u003cbr\u003eBenzaquen,[*] and who suffered and died because she loved one unworthy.\u003cbr\u003eThere was, also, among the company a mannered, bellied person called\u003cbr\u003eAlured Castorley, who talked and wrote about 'Bohemia,' but was always\u003cbr\u003eafraid of being 'compromised' by the weekly suppers at Neminaka's\u003cbr\u003eCafes in Hestern Square, where the Syndicate work was apportioned, and\u003cbr\u003ewhere everyone looked out for himself. He, too, for a time, had loved\u003cbr\u003eVidal's mother, in his own way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[* 'The Village that voted the Earth was Flat.' A Diversity of\u003cbr\u003eCreatures.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, one Saturday at Neminaka's, Graydon, who had given Manallace a\u003cbr\u003esheaf of prints--torn from an extinct children's book called\u003cbr\u003ePhilippa's Queen--on which to improvise, asked for results. Manallace\u003cbr\u003ewent down into his ulster-pocket, hesitated a moment, and said the\u003cbr\u003estuff had turned into poetry on his hands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Bosh!'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'That's what it isn't,' the boy retorted. 'It's rather good.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Then it's no use to us.' Graydon laughed. 'Have you brought back the\u003cbr\u003ecuts?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eManallace handed them over. There was a castle in the series; a knight\u003cbr\u003eor so in armour; an old lady in a horned head-dress; a young ditto; a\u003cbr\u003every obvious Hebrew; a clerk, with pen and inkhorn, checking wine-\u003cbr\u003ebarrels on a wharf; and a Crusader. On the back of one of the prints\u003cbr\u003ewas a note, 'If he doesn't want to go, why can't he be captured and\u003cbr\u003eheld to ransom?' Graydon asked what it all meant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I don't know yet. A comic opera, perhaps,' said Manallace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGraydon, who seldom wasted time, passed the cuts on to someone else,\u003cbr\u003eand advanced Manallace a couple of sovereigns to carry on with, as\u003cbr\u003eusual; at which Castorley was angry and would have said something\u003cbr\u003eunpleasant but was suppressed. Half-way through supper, Castorley told\u003cbr\u003ethe company that a relative had died and left him an independence; and\u003cbr\u003ethat he now withdrew from 'hackwork' to follow 'Literature.'\u003cbr\u003eGenerally, the Syndicate rejoiced in a comrade's good fortune, but\u003cbr\u003eCastorley had gifts of waking dislike. So the news was received with a\u003cbr\u003evote of thanks, and he went out before the end, and, it was said,\u003cbr\u003eproposed to 'Dal Benzaquen's mother, who refused him. He did not come\u003cbr\u003eback. Manallace, who had arrived a little exalted, got so drunk before\u003cbr\u003emidnight that a man had to stay and see him home. But liquor never\u003cbr\u003etouched him above the belt, and when he had slept awhile, he recited\u003cbr\u003eto the gas-chandelier the poetry he had made out of the pictures; said\u003cbr\u003ethat, on second thoughts, he would convert it into comic opera;\u003cbr\u003edeplored the Upas-tree influence of Gilbert and Sullivan; sang\u003cbr\u003esomewhat to illustrate his point; and--after words, by the way, with a\u003cbr\u003enegress in yellow satin--was steered to his rooms.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152662937840,"sku":"2940013763463","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013763463_p0.jpg?v=1763589940","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013763463","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}