{"product_id":"2940148456957","title":"Square Pegs (Illustrated)","description":"SQUARE PEGS: A RHYMED FANTASY FOR TWO GIRLS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHARACTERS.\u003cbr\u003eHilda A Modern Girl.\u003cbr\u003eGioconda A Fifteenth Century Venetian.\u003cbr\u003eSCENE.\u003cbr\u003eA Garden. Entrance right and left. Left, a table and two chairs. (The general effect should suggest a little lawn which leads outward in several directions.)\u003cbr\u003eThe arrival of a taxicab is heard, off. Enter left, Hilda in summer hat and dress and with a light cloak on her arm. She carries a folding-map and a small book.\u003cbr\u003eHilda (speaking off, left).\u003cbr\u003eWhat's that? As certain as your name's Joe Billings\u003cbr\u003eThe taximeter points at fifteen shillings.\u003cbr\u003eWell, and you've had a pound. What? Made a slip?\u003cbr\u003eI thought five shillings was a handsome tip.\u003cbr\u003eYou want my father's home-address? 'The Haven,\u003cbr\u003eChad Crescent, Baystead, North-West 57.'\u003cbr\u003eHe'll write you out a cheque—I'm sure he will.\u003cbr\u003e[Sound of a motor-horn growing fainter.\u003cbr\u003eThe creature's gone. These taxi-men! But still—\u003cbr\u003eAt last I've found the Enchanted Garden... Wait:\u003cbr\u003eSuppose that isn't really Merlin's Gate,\u003cbr\u003eNor this the garden where a girl who loathes\u003cbr\u003e8Our Twentieth Century (all except its clothes)\u003cbr\u003eMay turn the Book of Time to any page\u003cbr\u003eAnd find herself back in a lovelier age?\u003cbr\u003eThe map will show. Yes, there's the gate, and there's\u003cbr\u003eThat wall, that table, these two empty chairs...\u003cbr\u003eEverything's right. How wonderful, how splendid,\u003cbr\u003eTo know that here the roar of time has ended!\u003cbr\u003eNow, let me see... [Consulting her map.\u003cbr\u003eIf I should take that road\u003cbr\u003eWhat century should I have for my abode?\u003cbr\u003e'To Ancient Rome.' Lovely!\u003cbr\u003e[She starts to go out, right. Then stops.\u003cbr\u003eIt might be serious,\u003cbr\u003eThough, if I chanced on Nero or Tiberius.\u003cbr\u003eThe Romans had no manners... This way here—\u003cbr\u003eSo the map says—would lead me to the year\u003cbr\u003eTen-sixty-six. I won't be such a fool\u003cbr\u003eAs go back where I stuck so long at school.\u003cbr\u003eWilliam the First was always dull. I know\u003cbr\u003eHe'd make me listen to him—standing so,\u003cbr\u003eWith Bayeux hands, knee crookèd, and neck bowed—\u003cbr\u003eWhile he read all the Domesday Book aloud.\u003cbr\u003eI shan't go there... Now, that's a pretty view!\u003cbr\u003e[Referring to the map.\u003cbr\u003e'The Eighteenth Century: Boswell Avenue.'\u003cbr\u003eI might try that. But no—that won't do either.\u003cbr\u003eI'd have to wear a wig or tell them why there,\u003cbr\u003eLove coffee-houses more than trees and birds\u003cbr\u003eAnd talk in such tremendously long words.\u003cbr\u003eI know, I know! If I can find the way\u003cbr\u003eI'll wander back into the sumptuous day\u003cbr\u003e9When, in his gardens near the warm lagoon,\u003cbr\u003eTitian gave feasts under the stars and moon.\u003cbr\u003eThat would be heavenly! Those were noble times.\u003cbr\u003eThere was a grandeur even about the crimes\u003cbr\u003eOf people like the Borgias ... and their dresses,\u003cbr\u003eAnd the sweet way they wore their hair in tresses,\u003cbr\u003eAnd—oh, and everything! What was Titian's date?\u003cbr\u003eI mustn't err into a time too late;\u003cbr\u003eBut how to make quite sure? I'll take a look\u003cbr\u003eIn this adorable fire-coloured book—\u003cbr\u003eAddington Symonds... Oh, that I knew more!\u003cbr\u003eWas it in fifteen-sixty or before?","brand":"Lost Leaf Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47183951102192,"sku":"2940148456957","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940148456957_p0.jpg?v=1763702849","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940148456957","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}