One of Our Conquerors — Volume 1 by George Meredith
page 37 of 141 (26%)
page 37 of 141 (26%)
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and we are the angels above to receive the spirit.'
'I'm thinking of the house,' Benjamin replied. He told them that again. 'It 's the loss of the fame of having the wine, that he mourns. But, Benjamin,' said Mr. Fenellan, 'the fame enters into the partakers of it, and we spread it, and perpetuate it for you.' 'That don't keep a house upright,' returned Benjamin. Mr. Fenellan murmured to himself: 'True enough, it 's elegy--though we perform it through a trumpet; and there's not a doubt of our being down or having knocked the world down, if we're loudly praised.' Benjamin waited to hear approval sounded on the lips uncertain as a woman is a wine of ticklish age. The gentlemen nodded, and he retired. A second bottle, just as good as the first, should, one thoughtlessly supposes, procure us a similar reposeful and excursive enjoyment, as of men lying on their backs and flying imagination like a kite. The effect was quite other. Mr. Radnor drank hastily and spoke with heat: 'You told me All? tell me that!' Mr. Fenellan gathered himself together; he sipped, and relaxed his bracing. But there really was a bit more to tell: not much, was it? Not likely to puff a gale on the voluptuous indolence of a man drawn along by Nereids over sunny sea-waves to behold the birth of the Foam-Goddess? 'According to Carling, her lawyer; that is, he hints she meditates a blow.' |
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