Page:Through a Glass Lightly (1897, Greg).djvu/46

 exaggeration, whereby his vendors have given him a look of virtue, even though he have it not. And so, from being a mere appanage, a kind of spouse lawful of Plum Cake, this Sherry-White-Wine has attained to the dignity of an aboriginal, and upon him has been set the seal of legitimacy. Yet is he the most degenerate of bastards. His veins channel the mixed bloods of a dozen stocks. He is the very mulatto of wines, and art plays well-nigh as many freaks with his complexion as nature with her noblest creation; for he is now the very brownest of browns, and anon is stricken with a pallor that all but fetches him flush with the dominant race. At one time his odour is pervasive and insistent; at another his bouquet is so volatile that only the most curious observer may