{"product_id":"2940016291505","title":"One Hundred and One Tales of Mystery","description":"She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if\u003cbr\u003eby a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks. She had no dowry,\u003cbr\u003eno expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by\u003cbr\u003eany rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a\u003cbr\u003elittle clerk at the Ministry of Public Instruction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as\u003cbr\u003eunhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station; since\u003cbr\u003ewith women there is neither caste nor rank; and beauty, grace, and\u003cbr\u003echarm act instead of family and birth. Natural fineness, instinct for\u003cbr\u003ewhat is elegant, suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy, and make\u003cbr\u003efrom women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies\u003cbr\u003eand all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling,\u003cbr\u003efrom the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the\u003cbr\u003eugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of\u003cbr\u003eher rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made\u003cbr\u003eher angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble\u003cbr\u003ehousework aroused in her regrets which were despairing, and distracted\u003cbr\u003edreams. She thought of the silent antechambers hung with Oriental\u003cbr\u003etapestry, lit by tall bronze candelabra, and of the two great footmen\u003cbr\u003ein knee breeches who sleep in the big armchairs, made drowsy by the\u003cbr\u003eheavy warmth of the hot-air stove. She thought of the long\u003cbr\u003e_salons_ fatted up with ancient silk, of the delicate furniture\u003cbr\u003ecarrying priceless curiosities, and of the coquettish perfumed boudoirs\u003cbr\u003emade for talks at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous\u003cbr\u003eand sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they all\u003cbr\u003edesire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a\u003cbr\u003etablecloth three days old, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup\u003cbr\u003etureen and declared with an enchanted air, \"Ah, the good\u003cbr\u003e_pot-au-feu_! I don't know anything better than that,\" she thought\u003cbr\u003eof dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry which peopled the\u003cbr\u003ewalls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the\u003cbr\u003emidst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on\u003cbr\u003emarvelous plates, and of the whispered gallantries which you listen to\u003cbr\u003ewith a sphinx-like smile, while you are eating the pink flesh of a\u003cbr\u003etrout or the wings of a quail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that;\u003cbr\u003eshe felt made for that. She would so have liked to please, to be\u003cbr\u003eenvied, to be charming, to be sought after.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and\u003cbr\u003ewhom she did not like to go and see any more, because she suffered so\u003cbr\u003emuch when she came back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut, one evening, her husband returned home with a triumphant air, and\u003cbr\u003eholding a large envelope in his hand.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47071265718512,"sku":"2940016291505","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016291505_p0.jpg?v=1763632680","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016291505","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}