{"product_id":"2940014206211","title":"The Jewel of Seven Stars","description":"Contents\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I  A Summons in the Night\u003cbr\u003e    II  Strange Instructions\u003cbr\u003e   III  The Watchers\u003cbr\u003e    IV  The Second Attempt\u003cbr\u003e     V  More Strange Instructions\u003cbr\u003e    VI  Suspicions\u003cbr\u003e   VII  The Traveller's Loss\u003cbr\u003e  VIII  The Finding of the Lamps\u003cbr\u003e    IX  The Need of Knowledge\u003cbr\u003e     X  The Valley of the Sorcerer\u003cbr\u003e    XI  A Queen's Tomb\u003cbr\u003e   XII  The Magic Coffer\u003cbr\u003e  XIII  Awaking From the Trance\u003cbr\u003e   XIV  The Birth-Mark\u003cbr\u003e    XV  The Purpose of Queen Tera\u003cbr\u003e   XVI  The Cavern\u003cbr\u003e  XVII  Doubts and Fears\u003cbr\u003e XVIII  The Lesson of the \"Ka\"\u003cbr\u003e   XIX  The Great Experiment\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Summons in the Night\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt all seemed so real that I could hardly imagine that it had ever\u003cbr\u003eoccurred before; and yet each episode came, not as a fresh step in the\u003cbr\u003elogic of things, but as something expected.  It is in such a wise that\u003cbr\u003ememory plays its pranks for good or ill; for pleasure or pain; for weal\u003cbr\u003eor woe.  It is thus that life is bittersweet, and that which has been\u003cbr\u003edone becomes eternal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgain, the light skiff, ceasing to shoot through the lazy water as when\u003cbr\u003ethe oars flashed and dripped, glided out of the fierce July sunlight\u003cbr\u003einto the cool shade of the great drooping willow branches--I standing\u003cbr\u003eup in the swaying boat, she sitting still and with deft fingers\u003cbr\u003eguarding herself from stray twigs or the freedom of the resilience of\u003cbr\u003emoving boughs.  Again, the water looked golden-brown under the canopy\u003cbr\u003eof translucent green; and the grassy bank was of emerald hue.  Again,\u003cbr\u003ewe sat in the cool shade, with the myriad noises of nature both without\u003cbr\u003eand within our bower merging into that drowsy hum in whose sufficing\u003cbr\u003eenvironment the great world with its disturbing trouble, and its more\u003cbr\u003edisturbing joys, can be effectually forgotten.  Again, in that blissful\u003cbr\u003esolitude the young girl lost the convention of her prim, narrow\u003cbr\u003eupbringing, and told me in a natural, dreamy way of the loneliness of\u003cbr\u003eher new life. With an undertone of sadness she made me feel how in that\u003cbr\u003espacious home each one of the household was isolated by the personal\u003cbr\u003emagnificence of her father and herself; that there confidence had no\u003cbr\u003ealtar, and sympathy no shrine; and that there even her father's face\u003cbr\u003ewas as distant as the old country life seemed now.  Once more, the\u003cbr\u003ewisdom of my manhood and the experience of my years laid themselves at\u003cbr\u003ethe girl's feet.  It was seemingly their own doing; for the individual\u003cbr\u003e\"I\" had no say in the matter, but only just obeyed imperative orders.\u003cbr\u003eAnd once again the flying seconds multiplied themselves endlessly.  For\u003cbr\u003eit is in the arcana of dreams that existences merge and renew\u003cbr\u003ethemselves, change and yet keep the same--like the soul of a musician\u003cbr\u003ein a fugue.  And so memory swooned, again and again, in sleep.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt seems that there is never to be any perfect rest.  Even in Eden the\u003cbr\u003esnake rears its head among the laden boughs of the Tree of Knowledge.\u003cbr\u003eThe silence of the dreamless night is broken by the roar of the\u003cbr\u003eavalanche; the hissing of sudden floods; the clanging of the engine\u003cbr\u003ebell marking its sweep through a sleeping American town; the clanking\u003cbr\u003eof distant paddles over the sea....  Whatever it is, it is breaking the\u003cbr\u003echarm of my Eden.  The canopy of greenery above us, starred with\u003cbr\u003ediamond-points of light, seems to quiver in the ceaseless beat of\u003cbr\u003epaddles; and the restless bell seems as though it would never cease....\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll at once the gates of Sleep were thrown wide open, and my waking\u003cbr\u003eears took in the cause of the disturbing sounds.  Waking existence is\u003cbr\u003eprosaic enough--there was somebody knocking and ringing at someone's\u003cbr\u003estreet door.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47080012808432,"sku":"2940014206211","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014206211_p0.jpg?v=1763612532","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014206211","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}