Page:Through a Glass Lightly (1897, Greg).djvu/59

 Dom Grossart. And he, having the Moets among his subjects, died with his secret big and undivulged, and the line and dynasty of Dom Pérignon was extinct. And none was greater than the Founder, who, arch-celibate though he was, yet made conjunctions happier far than all the rest of the clergy put together; for so consummate was his skill, and so exquisite his palate, that, being blind with years, he would taste you grapes from a score of vineyards, and decree that the wine of this one must be married to the wine of that; and his fame was great in the land, and the people would have his wine or none. And as the greatest mind is that which can adjust itself to the smallest details making for perfection, so this our benefactor, discarding the oil-steeped wisps