{"product_id":"2940013773752","title":"The Invisible Girl","description":"This slender narrative has no pretensions to the regularity of a story,\u003cbr\u003eor the development of situations and feelings; it is but a slight\u003cbr\u003esketch, delivered nearly as it was narrated to me by one of the humblest\u003cbr\u003eof the actors concerned: nor will I spin out a circumstance interesting\u003cbr\u003eprincipally from its singularity and truth, but narrate, as concisely as\u003cbr\u003eI can, how I was surprised on visiting what seemed a ruined tower,\u003cbr\u003ecrowning a bleak promontory overhanging the sea, that flows between\u003cbr\u003eWales and Ireland, to find that though the exterior preserved all the\u003cbr\u003esavage rudeness that betokened many a war with the elements, the\u003cbr\u003einterior was fitted up somewhat in the guise of a summer-house, for it\u003cbr\u003ewas too small to deserve any other name. It consisted but of the\u003cbr\u003eground-floor, which served as an entrance, and one room above, which was\u003cbr\u003ereached by a staircase made out of the thickness of the wall. This\u003cbr\u003echamber was floored and carpeted, decorated with elegant furniture; and,\u003cbr\u003eabove all, to attract the attention and excite curiosity, there hung\u003cbr\u003eover the chimney-piece--for to preserve the apartment from damp a\u003cbr\u003efire-place had been built evidently since it had assumed a guise so\u003cbr\u003edissimilar to the object of its construction--a picture simply painted\u003cbr\u003ein water-colours, which seemed more than any part of the adornments of\u003cbr\u003ethe room to be at war with the rudeness of the building, the solitude in\u003cbr\u003ewhich it was placed, and the desolation of the surrounding scenery. This\u003cbr\u003edrawing represented a lovely girl in the very pride and bloom of youth;\u003cbr\u003eher dress was simple, in the fashion of the day--(remember, reader, I\u003cbr\u003ewrite at the beginning of the eighteenth century), her countenance was\u003cbr\u003eembellished by a look of mingled innocence and intelligence, to which\u003cbr\u003ewas added the imprint of serenity of soul and natural cheerfulness. She\u003cbr\u003ewas reading one of those folio romances which have so long been the\u003cbr\u003edelight of the enthusiastic and young; her mandoline was at her\u003cbr\u003efeet--her parroquet perched on a huge mirror near her; the arrangement\u003cbr\u003eof furniture and hangings gave token of a luxurious dwelling, and her\u003cbr\u003eattire also evidently that of home and privacy, yet bore with it an\u003cbr\u003eappearance of ease and girlish ornament, as if she wished to please.\u003cbr\u003eBeneath this picture was inscribed in golden letters, \"The Invisible\u003cbr\u003eGirl.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRambling about a country nearly uninhabited, having lost my way, and\u003cbr\u003ebeing overtaken by a shower, I had lighted on this dreary looking\u003cbr\u003etenement, which seemed to rock in the blast, and to be hung up there as\u003cbr\u003ethe very symbol of desolation. I was gazing wistfully and cursing\u003cbr\u003einwardly my stars which led me to a ruin that could afford no shelter,\u003cbr\u003ethough the storm began to pelt more seriously than before, when I saw an\u003cbr\u003eold woman's head popped out from a kind of loophole, and as suddenly\u003cbr\u003ewithdrawn:--a minute after a feminine voice called to me from within,\u003cbr\u003eand penetrating a little brambly maze that skreened a door, which I had\u003cbr\u003enot before observed, so skilfully had the planter succeeded in\u003cbr\u003econcealing art with nature I found the good dame standing on the\u003cbr\u003ethreshold and inviting me to take refuge within. \"I had just come up\u003cbr\u003efrom our cot hard by,\" she said, \"to look after the things, as I do\u003cbr\u003eevery day, when the rain came on--will ye walk up till it is over?\" I\u003cbr\u003ewas about to observe that the cot hard by, at the venture of a few rain\u003cbr\u003edrops, was better than a ruined tower, and to ask my kind hostess\u003cbr\u003ewhether \"the things\" were pigeons or crows that she was come to look\u003cbr\u003eafter, when the matting of the floor and the carpeting of the staircase\u003cbr\u003estruck my eye. I was still more surprised when I saw the room above; and\u003cbr\u003ebeyond all, the picture and its singular inscription, naming her\u003cbr\u003einvisible, whom the painter had coloured forth into very agreeable\u003cbr\u003evisibility, awakened my most lively curiosity: the result of this, of\u003cbr\u003emy exceeding politeness towards the old woman, and her own natural\u003cbr\u003egarrulity, was a kind of garbled narrative which my imagination eked\u003cbr\u003eout, and future inquiries rectified, till it assumed the following form.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome years before in the afternoon of a September day, which, though\u003cbr\u003etolerably fair, gave many tokens of a tempestuous evening, a gentleman\u003cbr\u003earrived at a little coast town about ten miles from this place; he\u003cbr\u003eexpressed his desire to hire a boat to carry him to the town of about\u003cbr\u003efifteen miles further on the coast. The menaces which the sky held forth\u003cbr\u003emade the fishermen loathe to venture, till at length two, one the father\u003cbr\u003eof a numerous family, bribed by the bountiful reward the stranger\u003cbr\u003epromised--the other, the son of my hostess, induced by youthful daring,\u003cbr\u003eagreed to undertake the voyage.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083177672944,"sku":"2940013773752","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013773752_p0.jpg?v=1763590080","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013773752","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}