{"product_id":"2940013771482","title":"For the Blood is the Life and Other Stories","description":"SIR HUGH OCKRAM smiled as he sat by the open window of his study, in\u003cbr\u003ethe late August afternoon. A curiously yellow cloud obscured the low\u003cbr\u003esun, and the clear summer light turned lurid, as if it had been\u003cbr\u003esuddenly poisoned and polluted by the foul vapours of a plague. Sir\u003cbr\u003eHugh's face seemed, at best, to be made of fine parchment drawn skin-\u003cbr\u003etight over a wooden mask, in which two sunken eyes peered from far\u003cbr\u003ewithin. The eyes peered from under wrinkled lids, alive and watchful\u003cbr\u003elike toads in their holes, side by side and exactly alike. But as the\u003cbr\u003elight changed, a little yellow glare flashed in each. He smiled,\u003cbr\u003estretching pale lips across discoloured teeth in an expression of\u003cbr\u003eprofound self-satisfaction, blended with the most unforgiving hatred\u003cbr\u003eand contempt for the human doll.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNurse Macdonald, who was a hundred years old, said that when Sir Hugh\u003cbr\u003esmiled he saw the faces of two women in hell--two dead women he had\u003cbr\u003ebetrayed. The smile widened.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe hideous disease of which Sir Hugh was dying had touched his brain.\u003cbr\u003eHis son stood beside him, tall, white and delicate as an angel in a\u003cbr\u003eprimitive picture. And though there was deep distress in his violet\u003cbr\u003eeyes as he looked at his father's face, he felt the shadow of that\u003cbr\u003esickening smile stealing across his own lips, parting and drawing them\u003cbr\u003eagainst his will. It was like a bad dream, for he tried not to smile\u003cbr\u003eand smiled the more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeside him--strangely like him in her wan, angelic beauty, with the\u003cbr\u003esame shadowy golden hair, the same sad violet eyes, the same\u003cbr\u003eluminously pale face--Evelyn Warburton rested one hand upon his arm.\u003cbr\u003eAs she looked into her uncle's eyes, she could not turn her own away\u003cbr\u003eand she too knew that the deathly smile was hovering on her own red\u003cbr\u003elips, drawing them tightly across her little teeth, while two bright\u003cbr\u003etears ran down her cheeks to her mouth, and dropped from the upper to\u003cbr\u003ethe lower lip. The smile was like the shadow of death and the seal of\u003cbr\u003edamnation upon her pure, young face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Of course,\" said Sir Hugh very slowly, still looking out at the\u003cbr\u003etrees, \"if you have made your mind up to be married, I cannot hinder\u003cbr\u003eyou, and I don't suppose you attach the smallest importance to my\u003cbr\u003econsent--\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Father!\" exclaimed Gabriel reproachfully.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No. I do not deceive myself,\" continued the old man, smiling\u003cbr\u003eterribly. \"You will marry when I am dead, though there is a very good\u003cbr\u003ereason why you had better not--why you had better not,\" he repeated\u003cbr\u003every emphatically, and he slowly turned his toad eyes upon the lovers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What reason?\" asked Evelyn in a frightened voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Never mind the reason, my dear. You will marry just as if it did not\u003cbr\u003eexist.\" There was a long pause. \"Two gone,\" he said, his voice\u003cbr\u003elowering strangely, \"and two more will be four all together forever\u003cbr\u003eand ever, burning, burning, burning bright.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the last words his head sank slowly back, and the little glare of\u003cbr\u003ehis toad eyes disappeared under the swollen lids. Sir Hugh had fallen\u003cbr\u003easleep, as he often did in his illness, even while speaking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGabriel Ockram drew Evelyn away, and from the study they went out into\u003cbr\u003ethe dim hall. Softly closing the door behind them, each audibly drew a\u003cbr\u003ebreath, as though some sudden danger had been passed. As they laid\u003cbr\u003etheir hands each in the other's, their strangely-like eyes met in a\u003cbr\u003elong look in which love and perfect understanding were darkened by the\u003cbr\u003esecret terror of an unknown thing. Their pale faces reflected each\u003cbr\u003eother's fear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It is his secret,\" said Evelyn at last. \"He will never tell us what\u003cbr\u003eit is.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If he dies with it,\" answered Gabriel, \"let it be on his own head!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"On his head!\" echoed the dim hall. It was a strange echo. Some were\u003cbr\u003efrightened by it, for they said that if it were a real echo it should\u003cbr\u003erepeat everything and not give back a phrase here and there--now\u003cbr\u003espeaking, now silent. Nurse Macdonald said that the great hall would\u003cbr\u003enever echo a prayer when an Ockram was to die, though it would give\u003cbr\u003eback curses ten for one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"On his head!\" it repeated quite softly, and Evelyn started and looked\u003cbr\u003eround.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It is only the echo,\" said Gabriel, leading her away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey went out into the late afternoon light, and sat upon a stone seat\u003cbr\u003ebehind the chapel, which had been built across the end of the east\u003cbr\u003ewing. It was very still. Not a breath stirred, and there was no sound\u003cbr\u003enear them. Only far off in the park a song-bird was whistling the high\u003cbr\u003eprelude to the evening chorus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It is very lonely here,\" said Evelyn, taking Gabriel's hand nervously\u003cbr\u003eand speaking as if she dreaded to disturb the silence. \"If it were\u003cbr\u003edark, I should be afraid.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079665631472,"sku":"2940013771482","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013771482_p0.jpg?v=1763590051","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013771482","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}