{"product_id":"2940013769229","title":"The Chinese Parrot","description":"Alexander Eden stepped from the misty street into the great,\u003cbr\u003emarble-pillared room where the firm of Meek and Eden offered its wares.\u003cbr\u003eImmediately, behind showcases gorgeous with precious stones or bright\u003cbr\u003ewith silver, platinum and gold, forty resplendent clerks stood at\u003cbr\u003eattention. Their morning coats were impeccable, lacking the slightest\u003cbr\u003esuspicion of a wrinkle, and in the left lapel of each was a pink\u003cbr\u003ecarnation, as fresh and perfect as though it had grown there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEden nodded affably to right and left and went on his way, his heels\u003cbr\u003eclicking cheerily on the spotless tile floor. He was a small man,\u003cbr\u003egray-haired and immaculate, with a quick keen eye and the imperious\u003cbr\u003emanner that so well became his position. For the clan of Meek, having\u003cbr\u003eduly inherited the earth, had relinquished that inheritance and passed to\u003cbr\u003ethe great beyond, leaving Alexander Eden the sole owner of the best-known\u003cbr\u003ejewelry store west of the Rockies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eArriving at the rear of the shop, he ascended a brief stairway to the\u003cbr\u003eluxurious suite of offices on the mezzanine floor where he spent his\u003cbr\u003edays. In the anteroom of the suite he encountered his secretary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ah, good morning, Miss Chase,\" he said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe girl answered with a smile. Eden's eye for beauty, developed by long\u003cbr\u003eexperience in the jewel trade, had not failed him when he picked Miss\u003cbr\u003eChase. She was an ash blonde with violet eyes; her manners were\u003cbr\u003eexquisite; so was her gown. Bob Eden, reluctant heir to the business, had\u003cbr\u003ebeen heard to remark that entering his father's office was like arriving\u003cbr\u003efor tea in a very exclusive drawing-room.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlexander Eden glanced at his watch. \"In about ten minutes,\" he\u003cbr\u003eannounced, \"I expect a caller--an old friend of mine--Madame Jordan, of\u003cbr\u003eHonolulu. When she arrives, show her in at once.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, Mr. Eden,\" replied the girl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe passed on into his own room, where he hung up his hat, coat and stick.\u003cbr\u003eOn his broad, gleaming desk lay the morning mail; he glanced at it idly,\u003cbr\u003ebut his mind was elsewhere. In a moment he strolled to one of the windows\u003cbr\u003eand stood there gazing at the facade of the building across the way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe day was not far advanced, and the fog that had blanketed San\u003cbr\u003eFrancisco the night before still lingered in the streets. Staring into\u003cbr\u003ethat dull gray mist, Eden saw a picture, a picture that was incongruously\u003cbr\u003eall color and light and life. His thoughts had traveled back down the\u003cbr\u003elong corridor of the years, and in that imagined scene outside the\u003cbr\u003ewindow, he himself moved, a slim dark boy of seventeen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForty years ago--a night in Honolulu, the gay happy Honolulu of the\u003cbr\u003emonarchy. Behind a bank of ferns in one corner of the great Phillimore\u003cbr\u003eliving-room Berger's band was playing, and over the polished floor young\u003cbr\u003eAlec Eden and Sally Phillimore danced together. The boy stumbled now and\u003cbr\u003ethen, for the dance was a new-fangled one called the two-step, lately\u003cbr\u003eintroduced into Hawaii by a young ensign from the Nipsic. But perhaps it\u003cbr\u003ewas not entirely his unfamiliarity with the two-step that muddled him,\u003cbr\u003efor he knew that in his arms he held the darling of the islands.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070456905968,"sku":"2940013769229","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013769229_p0.jpg?v=1763589986","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013769229","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}