{"product_id":"2940014789905","title":"NIGHTMARE ABBEY","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNightmare Abbey, a venerable family-mansion, in a highly picturesque\u003cbr\u003estate of semi-dilapidation, pleasantly situated on a strip of dry land\u003cbr\u003ebetween the sea and the fens, at the verge of the county of Lincoln,\u003cbr\u003ehad the honour to be the seat of Christopher Glowry, Esquire. This\u003cbr\u003egentleman was naturally of an atrabilarious temperament, and much\u003cbr\u003etroubled with those phantoms of indigestion which are commonly called\u003cbr\u003e_blue devils_. He had been deceived in an early friendship: he had\u003cbr\u003ebeen crossed in love; and had offered his hand, from pique, to a lady,\u003cbr\u003ewho accepted it from interest, and who, in so doing, violently tore\u003cbr\u003easunder the bonds of a tried and youthful attachment. Her vanity was\u003cbr\u003egratified by being the mistress of a very extensive, if not very\u003cbr\u003elively, establishment; but all the springs of her sympathies were\u003cbr\u003efrozen. Riches she possessed, but that which enriches them, the\u003cbr\u003eparticipation of affection, was wanting. All that they could purchase\u003cbr\u003efor her became indifferent to her, because that which they could not\u003cbr\u003epurchase, and which was more valuable than themselves, she had, for\u003cbr\u003etheir sake, thrown away. She discovered, when it was too late, that\u003cbr\u003eshe had mistaken the means for the end--that riches, rightly used, are\u003cbr\u003einstruments of happiness, but are not in themselves happiness. In this\u003cbr\u003ewilful blight of her affections, she found them valueless as means:\u003cbr\u003ethey had been the end to which she had immolated all her affections,\u003cbr\u003eand were now the only end that remained to her. She did not confess\u003cbr\u003ethis to herself as a principle of action, but it operated through the\u003cbr\u003emedium of unconscious self-deception, and terminated in inveterate\u003cbr\u003eavarice. She laid on external things the blame of her mind's internal\u003cbr\u003edisorder, and thus became by degrees an accomplished scold. She often\u003cbr\u003ewent her daily rounds through a series of deserted apartments, every\u003cbr\u003ecreature in the house vanishing at the creak of her shoe, much more\u003cbr\u003eat the sound of her voice, to which the nature of things affords no\u003cbr\u003esimile; for, as far as the voice of woman, when attuned by gentleness\u003cbr\u003eand love, transcends all other sounds in harmony, so far does\u003cbr\u003eit surpass all others in discord, when stretched into unnatural\u003cbr\u003eshrillness by anger and impatience.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070845337840,"sku":"2940014789905","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014789905_p0.jpg?v=1763615948","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014789905","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}