THROUGH A GLASS LIGHTLY
somewhat in their prices and value our dinners by those Princes of the Blood with whom we are privileged to fraternise? And our preferences—how exclusively our own, how cherished, how esteemed! How this one will swear by the buff label of that Widow Clicquot, who takes precedence, and the wall of all other widows, save Mrs Wadman alone! Think, too, of the liquid splendour of the Irroy name, the mouthful of majesty in Deutz and Geldermann’s Gold Lack, the aristocratic flavour of Due de Montebello, and the disappointment bred of too great an intimacy with that titled impostor! Then, too, the utter exclusiveness of Heidsieck’s Dry Monopole, the merry lilt of Pommery and Greno, the boom of Bollinger ! Are we not familiar with them all ? They
50
