Chinese bowl, and drunk not from the customary low
tumblers, but from special Spode cups, and was, I
must confess, productive of a head--for I myself was
once tempted to drink a bumper of it at this most
delightful of houses with young Oliver, many years
ago, it is true, but I have never forgotten it--productive
of an ACHING head, I think I said, that felt
as big in the morning as the Canton bowl in which
the mixture had been brewed.

Or, if none of these functions or festivals were
taking place, and only one or two old cronies had
dropped in on their way from the Club, and had
drawn up their chairs close to the dining-room table,
and you had happened to be hanging up your hat
in the hall at that moment, you would have been
conscious of an aroma as delicate in flavor as that
wafted across summer seas from far-off tropic isles;
of pomegranates, if you will, ripening by crumbling
walls; of purple grapes drinking in the sun; of pine
and hemlock; of sweet spices and the scent of roses.
or any other combination of delightful things which
your excited imagination might suggest.

You would have known then just what had taken
place; how, when the gentlemen were seated, Malachi
in his undress blue coat and brass buttons had
approached his master noiselessly from behind, and
with a gravity that befitted the occasion had bent low
his head, his hands behind his back, his head turned