THROUGH A GLASS LIGHTLY
sense of remoteness and insolent aristocracy, comes, or came, from a small avalanche of tufa lying at the foot of a cliff all but inaccessible. And one small farm only grows the wine which the Royal House of Portugal was wont to keep for its own exclusive use. And cousin-german to the Malmsey, through the collateral line, is the Sercial, descended from the grape which in other lands nearer home produced Hock; the wine of the Affinities.
So, do what we will, we cannot but doff our hats to this wine of ours, for we stand—in his presence—in the presence of royalty. And he has this endearing quality about him, that he and Time are such good friends and understand one another so well that age becomes him and is his charm, when with us poor men and women
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