Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papersonce loved. Oh, never, never!” And here his natural eyewas bedewed with tears. “But here we are at the ‘Gray’sinnCoffee-house.’ James, what is the joint?”That very respectful and efficient waiter brought inthe bill of fare, and I, for my part, chose boiled leg ofpork and pease-pudding, which my acquaintance saidwould do as well as anything else; though I remarkedhe only trifled with the pease-pudding, and left all thepork on the plate. In fact, he scarcely ate anything. Buthe drank a prodigious quantity of wine; and I must saythat my friend Mr. Hart’s port-wine is so good that Imyself took—well, I should think, I took three glasses.Yes, three, certainly. He—I mean Mr. P.—the old rogue,was insatiable: for we had to call for a second bottle inno time. When that was gone, my companion wantedanother. A little red mounted up to his yellow cheeks ashe drank the wine, and he winked at it in a strangemanner. “I remember,” said he, musing, “when portwinewas scarcely drunk in this country—though theQueen liked it, and so did Harley; but Bolingbrokedidn’t—he drank Florence and Champagne. Dr. Swiftput water to his wine. ‘Jonathan,’ I once said to him—but bah! autres temps, autres moeurs. Another magnum,James.”This was all very well. “My good sir,” I said, “it maysuit you to order bottles of ’20 port, at a guinea a bottle;but that kind of price does not suit me. I only happento have thirty-four and sixpence in my pocket, of whichI want a shilling for the waiter, and eighteenpence formy cab. You rich foreigners and swells may spend whatyou like” (I had him there: for my friend’s dress was asshabby as an old-clothesman’s); “but a man with a family,Mr. What-d’you-call’im, cannot afford to spend sevenor eight hundred a year on his dinner alone.”“Bah!” he said. “Nunkey pays for all, as you say. I willwhat you call stant the dinner, if you are so poor!” andagain he gave that disagreeable grin, and placed anodious crooked-nailed and by no means clean finger tohis nose. But I was not so afraid of him now, for wewere in a public place; and the three glasses of portwinehad, you see, given me courage.“What a pretty snuff-box!” he remarked, as I handed218