{"product_id":"2940015746792","title":"MR. WITT'S WIDOW","description":"CONTENTS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  CHAPTER                                     PAGE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       I. HOW GEORGE NESTON JUMPED               1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      II. WHY GEORGE NESTON JUMPED              15\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     III. \"WHAT ARE QUARTER SESSIONS?\"          26\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      IV. A SERPENT IN EDEN                     38\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       V. THE FIRST PARAGRAPH--AND OTHERS       52\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      VI. A SUCCESSFUL ORDEAL                   65\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     VII. AN IMPOSSIBLE BARGAIN                 82\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    VIII. THE FRACAS AT MRS. POCKLINGTON'S      95\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      IX. GERALD NESTON SATISFIES HIMSELF      109\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e       X. REMINISCENCES OF A NOBLEMAN          122\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      XI. PRESENTING AN HONEST WOMAN           136\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XII. NOT BEFORE THOSE GIRLS!              150\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XIII. CONTAINING MORE THAN ONE ULTIMATIUM  162\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XIV. NEAERA'S LAST CARD                   172\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      XV. A LETTER FOR MR. GERALD              183\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XVI. THERE IS AN EXPLOSION                197\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XVII. LAURA DIFFERS                        208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   XVIII. GEORGE NEARLY GOES TO BRIGHTON       219\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XIX. SOME ONE TO SPEAK TO                 227\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      XX. FATE'S INSTRUMENTS                   237\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMR. WITT'S WIDOW.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHOW GEORGE NESTON JUMPED.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Nestons, of Tottlebury Grange in the county of Suffolk, were an\u003cbr\u003eancient and honourable family, never very distinguished or very rich,\u003cbr\u003ebut yet for many generations back always richer and more distinguished\u003cbr\u003ethan the common run of mankind. The men had been for the most part able\u003cbr\u003eand upright, tenacious of their claims, and mindful of their duties; the\u003cbr\u003ewomen had respected their betters, exacted respect from their inferiors,\u003cbr\u003eand educated their brothers' wives in the Neston ways; and the whole\u003cbr\u003erace, while confessing individual frailties, would have been puzzled to\u003cbr\u003epoint out how, as a family, it had failed to live up to the position in\u003cbr\u003ewhich Providence and the Constitution had placed it. The error, if any,\u003cbr\u003ehad indeed been on the other side in one or two cases. The last owner\u003cbr\u003eof the Grange, a gay old bachelor, had scorned the limits of his rents\u003cbr\u003eand his banking-account, and added victories on the turf to the family\u003cbr\u003elaurels at a heavy cost to the family revenues. His sudden death had\u003cbr\u003ebeen mourned as a personal loss, but silently acknowledged as a dynastic\u003cbr\u003egain, and ten years of the methodical rule of his brother Roger had gone\u003cbr\u003efar to efface the ravages of his merry reign. The younger sons of the\u003cbr\u003eNestons served the State or adorned the professions, and Roger had spent\u003cbr\u003ea long and useful life in the Office of Commerce. He had been a valuable\u003cbr\u003eofficial, and his merits had not gone unappreciated. Fame he had neither\u003cbr\u003esought nor attained, and his name had come but little before the public,\u003cbr\u003eits rare appearances in the newspapers generally occurring on days when\u003cbr\u003eour Gracious Sovereign completed another year of her beneficent life,\u003cbr\u003eand was pleased to mark the occasion by conferring honour on Mr. Roger\u003cbr\u003eNeston. When this happened, all the leader-writers looked him up in \"Men\u003cbr\u003eof the Time,\" or \"Whitaker,\" or some other standard work of reference,\u003cbr\u003eand remarked that few appointments would meet with more universal public\u003cbr\u003eapproval, a proposition which the public must be taken to have endorsed\u003cbr\u003ewith tacit unanimity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Neston went on his way, undisturbed by his moments of notoriety,\u003cbr\u003ebut quietly pleased with his red ribbon, and, when he entered into\u003cbr\u003epossession of the family estate, continued to go to the office with\u003cbr\u003eunabated regularity. At last he reached the pinnacle of his particular\u003cbr\u003eambition, and, as Permanent Head of his Department, for fifteen years\u003cbr\u003etook a large share in the government of a people almost unconscious of\u003cbr\u003ehis existence, until the moment when it saw the announcement that on his\u003cbr\u003eretirement he had been raised to the peerage by the title of Baron\u003cbr\u003eTottlebury. Then the chorus of approval broke forth once again, and the\u003cbr\u003enew lord had many friendly pats on the back he was turning to public\u003cbr\u003elife. Henceforth he sat silent in the House of Lords, and wrote letters\u003cbr\u003eto the _Times_ on subjects which the cares of office had not previously\u003cbr\u003eleft him leisure to study.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut fortune was not yet tired of smiling on the Nestons. Lord\u003cbr\u003eTottlebury, before accepting his new dignity, had impressed upon his\u003cbr\u003eson Gerald the necessity of seeking the wherewith to gild the coronet\u003cbr\u003eby a judicious marriage. Gerald was by no means loth. He had never made\u003cbr\u003emuch progress at the Bar, and felt that his want of success contrasted\u003cbr\u003eunfavourably with the growing practice of his cousin George, a state of\u003cbr\u003ethings very unfitting, as George represented a younger branch than\u003cbr\u003eGerald.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146411393264,"sku":"2940015746792","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015746792","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}