{"product_id":"2940014500784","title":"The Argonauts of North Liberty","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003eThe bell of the North Liberty Second Presbyterian Church had just\u003cbr\u003eceased\u003cbr\u003eringing. North Liberty, Connecticut, never on any day a cheerful town,\u003cbr\u003ewas always bleaker and more cheerless on the seventh, when the Sabbath\u003cbr\u003esun, after vainly trying to coax a smile of reciprocal kindliness from\u003cbr\u003ethe drawn curtains and half-closed shutters of the austere dwellings\u003cbr\u003eand\u003cbr\u003ethe equally sealed and hard-set churchgoing faces of the people, at\u003cbr\u003elast\u003cbr\u003esettled down into a blank stare of stony astonishment. On this chilly\u003cbr\u003eMarch evening of the year 1850, that stare had kindled into an\u003cbr\u003eoffended\u003cbr\u003esunset and an angry night that furiously spat sleet and hail in the\u003cbr\u003efaces of the worshippers, and made them fight their way to the church,\u003cbr\u003estep by step, with bent heads and fiercely compressed lips, until they\u003cbr\u003eseemed to be carrying its forbidding portals at the point of their\u003cbr\u003eumbrellas.\u003cbr\u003eWithin that sacred but graceless edifice, the rigors of the hour and\u003cbr\u003eoccasion reached their climax. The shivering gas-jets lit up the\u003cbr\u003eaustere\u003cbr\u003epallor of the bare walls, and the hollow, shell-like sweep of\u003cbr\u003ecolorless\u003cbr\u003evacuity behind the cold communion table. The chill of despair and\u003cbr\u003ehopeless renunciation was in the air, untempered by any glow from\u003cbr\u003ethe sealed air-tight stove that seemed only to bring out a lukewarm\u003cbr\u003eexhalation of wet clothes and cheaply dyed umbrellas. Nor did the\u003cbr\u003epresence of the worshippers themselves impart any life to the dreary\u003cbr\u003eapartment. Scattered throughout the white pews, in dull, shapeless,\u003cbr\u003eneutral blotches, rigidly separated from each other, they seemed only\u003cbr\u003eto accent the colorless church and the emptiness of all things. A few\u003cbr\u003echildren, who had huddled together for warmth in one of the back\u003cbr\u003ePage 1\u003cbr\u003eThe Argonauts of North Liberty\u003cbr\u003ebenches and who had became glutinous and adherent through moisture,\u003cbr\u003ewere\u003cbr\u003elaboriously drawn out and painfully picked apart by a watchful deacon.\u003cbr\u003eThe dry, monotonous disturbance of the bell had given way to the\u003cbr\u003estrain\u003cbr\u003eof a bass viol, that had been apparently pitched to the key of the\u003cbr\u003eeast\u003cbr\u003ewind without, and the crude complaint of a new harmonium that seemed\u003cbr\u003eto\u003cbr\u003ebewail its limited prospect of ever becoming seasoned or mellowed in\u003cbr\u003eits\u003cbr\u003eearthly tabernacle, and then the singing began. Here and there a human\u003cbr\u003evoice soared and struggled above the narrow text and the monotonous\u003cbr\u003ecadence with a cry of individual longing, but was borne down by the\u003cbr\u003edull, trampling precision of the others' formal chant. This and\u003cbr\u003ea certain muffled raking of the stove by the sexton brought the\u003cbr\u003etemperature down still lower. A sermon, in keeping with the previous\u003cbr\u003eperformance, in which the chill east wind of doctrine was not tempered\u003cbr\u003eto any shorn lamb within that dreary fold, followed. A spark of human\u003cbr\u003eand vulgar interest was momentarily kindled by the collection and the\u003cbr\u003esimultaneous movement of reluctant hands towards their owners'\u003cbr\u003epockets;\u003cbr\u003ebut the coins fell on the baize-covered plates with a dull thud, like\u003cbr\u003eclods on a coffin, and the dreariness returned. Then there was another\u003cbr\u003ehymn and a prolonged moan from the harmonium, to which mysterious\u003cbr\u003esuggestion the congregation rose and began slowly to file into the\u003cbr\u003eaisle. For a moment they mingled; there was the silent grasping of\u003cbr\u003edamp\u003cbr\u003ewoollen mittens and cold black gloves, and the whispered interchange\u003cbr\u003eof each other's names with the prefix of \"Brother\" or \"Sister,\" and\u003cbr\u003ean utter absence of fraternal geniality, and then the meeting slowly\u003cbr\u003edispersed.\u003cbr\u003eThe few who had waited until the minister had resumed his hat,\u003cbr\u003eovercoat,\u003cbr\u003eand overshoes, and accompanied him to the door, had already passed\u003cbr\u003eout;\u003cbr\u003ethe sexton was turning out the flickering gas jets one by one, when\u003cbr\u003ethe\u003cbr\u003ecold and austere silence was broken by a sound--the unmistakable echo\u003cbr\u003eof\u003cbr\u003ea kiss of human passion.\u003cbr\u003eAs the horror-stricken official turned angrily, the figure of a man\u003cbr\u003eglided from the shadow of the stairs below the organ loft, and\u003cbr\u003evanished\u003cbr\u003ethrough the open door. Before the sexton could follow, the figure of a\u003cbr\u003ewoman slipped out of the same portal and with a hurried glance after\u003cbr\u003ethe\u003cbr\u003efirst retreating figure, turned in the opposite direction and was lost\u003cbr\u003ein the darkness. By the time the indignant and scandalized custodian\u003cbr\u003ePage 2\u003cbr\u003eThe Argonauts of North Liberty\u003cbr\u003ehad\u003cbr\u003ereached the portal, they had both melted in the troubled sea of\u003cbr\u003etossing umbrellas already to the right and left of him, and pursuit\u003cbr\u003eand\u003cbr\u003erecognition were hopeless.\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER II\u003cbr\u003eThe male figure, however, after mingling with his fellow-worshippers\u003cbr\u003eto the corner of the block, stopped a moment under the lamp-post as if\u003cbr\u003euncertain as to the turning, but really to cast a long, scrutinizing\u003cbr\u003elook towards the scattered umbrellas now ...","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083764875504,"sku":"2940014500784","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014500784_p0.jpg?v=1763610219","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014500784","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}