{"product_id":"2940015846997","title":"BENITA--AN AFRICAN ROMANCE","description":"I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONFIDENCES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeautiful, beautiful was that night! No air that stirred; the black\u003cbr\u003esmoke from the funnels of the mail steamer _Zanzibar_ lay low over the\u003cbr\u003esurface of the sea like vast, floating ostrich plumes that vanished one\u003cbr\u003eby one in the starlight. Benita Beatrix Clifford, for that was her full\u003cbr\u003ename, who had been christened Benita after her mother and Beatrix after\u003cbr\u003eher father's only sister, leaning idly over the bulwark rail, thought\u003cbr\u003eto herself that a child might have sailed that sea in a boat of bark and\u003cbr\u003ecome safely into port.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen a tall man of about thirty years of age, who was smoking a cigar,\u003cbr\u003estrolled up to her. At his coming she moved a little as though to make\u003cbr\u003eroom for him beside her, and there was something in the motion which,\u003cbr\u003ehad anyone been there to observe it, might have suggested that these two\u003cbr\u003ewere upon terms of friendship, or still greater intimacy. For a moment\u003cbr\u003ehe hesitated, and while he did so an expression of doubt, of distress\u003cbr\u003eeven, gathered on his face. It was as though he understood that a great\u003cbr\u003edeal depended on whether he accepted or declined that gentle invitation,\u003cbr\u003eand knew not which to do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIndeed, much did depend upon it, no less than the destinies of both of\u003cbr\u003ethem. If Robert Seymour had gone by to finish his cigar in solitude, why\u003cbr\u003ethen this story would have had a very different ending; or, rather, who\u003cbr\u003ecan say how it might have ended? The dread, foredoomed event with which\u003cbr\u003ethat night was big would have come to its awful birth leaving certain\u003cbr\u003ewords unspoken. Violent separation must have ensued, and even if both of\u003cbr\u003ethem had survived the terror, what prospect was there that their lives\u003cbr\u003ewould again have crossed each other in that wide Africa?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut it was not so fated, for just as he put his foot forward to continue\u003cbr\u003ehis march Benita spoke in her low and pleasant voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Are you going to the smoking-room or to the saloon to dance, Mr.\u003cbr\u003eSeymour? One of the officers just told me that there is to be a dance,\"\u003cbr\u003eshe added, in explanation, \"because it is so calm that we might fancy\u003cbr\u003eourselves ashore.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Neither,\" he answered. \"The smoking-room is stuffy, and my dancing days\u003cbr\u003eare over. No; I proposed to take exercise after that big dinner, and\u003cbr\u003ethen to sit in a chair and fall asleep. But,\" he added, and his voice\u003cbr\u003egrew interested, \"how did you know that it was I? You never turned your\u003cbr\u003ehead.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47178095984880,"sku":"2940015846997","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015846997","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}