（外文电子版资料）Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - The Spider Glass.pdf

THE SPIDER GLASS An Edwardian Story By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro ========== It’s only fitting, I think, that we end this volume with one of the series’ most favorite contributors. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro was one of the first women to establish what should have been known by editors and publishers all along—that women can write “this stuff” just as well as men. Sadly, she and the other women in the field still have to prove it, it seems. That is, not to put too fine a point on it, dumb. A writer is a writer is a writer, by God, and what the hell does sex have to do with the price of apples ? Nevertheless, she perseveres. She grows. She gives us some of the best writing the field has ever seen. And when Shadows finally, inevitably comes to an end, I can only hope that it will end with something she has written . ========== “THERE IS A curious tale behind this mirror, actually. I’m pleased you noticed it,” their host said to the select and exclusively masculine company that had gathered in the Oak Parlor at Briarcopse after dinner. He reached for the port and rather grandly offered it around. “Surely you’ll have some. It was laid down the year I was born—splendid stuff. My father was quite the expert in these matters, I assure you.” Five of his guests accepted with alacrity; the sixth declined with a polite, Continental bow, and the Earl put the decanter back onto the silver tray set out on the gleaming mahogany table. “Don’t stand on ceremony, any of you,” he said with a negligent wave of his long, thin hand. He then settled back in his chair, a high-backed, scallop-topped relic of the reign of Queen Anne, and propped his heels on the heavy Tudor settle before the fire. Slowly he lit his cigar, savoring the aroma and the anticipation of his guests. “For the lord Harry, Whittenfield…” the rotund gentleman with the brindled mutton-chop whiskers protested, though his indignation was marred by an indulgent smirk. Their host, Charles Whittenfield, ninth