OWEN WISTER Ultimate Collection: Western Classics, Adventure & Historical Novels (Including Non-Fiction Historical Works). Owen Wister

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      The Dragon of Wantley: His Tale

       Table of Contents

      When Betsinda held the Rose

       And the Ring decked Giglio’s finger

       Thackeray! ’twas sport to linger

       With thy wise, gay-hearted prose.

       Books were merry, goodness knows!

       When Betsinda held the Rose.

      Who but foggy drudglings doze

       While Rob Gilpin toasts thy witches,

       While the Ghost waylays thy breeches,

       Ingoldsby? Such tales as those

       Exorcised our peevish woes

       When Betsinda held the Rose.

      Realism, thou specious pose!

       Haply it is good we met thee;

       But, passed by, we’ll scarce regret thee;

       For we love the light that glows

       Where Queen Fancy’s pageant goes,

       And Betsinda holds the Rose.

      Shall we dare it? Then let’s close

       Doors to-night on things statistic,

       Seek the hearth in circle mystic,

       Till the conjured fire-light shows

       Where Youth’s bubbling Fountain flows,

       And Betsinda holds the Rose.

      Here was something wrong in the cellar at Wantley Manor. Little Whelpdale knew it, for he was Buttons, and Buttons always knows what is being done with the wine, though he may look as if he did not. And old Popham knew it, too. He was Butler, and responsible to Sir Godfrey for all the brandy, and ale, and cider, and mead, and canary, and other strong waters there were in the house.

      Now, Sir Godfrey Disseisin, fourth Baron of Wantley, and immediate tenant by knight-service to His Majesty King John of England, was particular about his dogs, and particular about his horses, and about his only daughter and his boy Roland, and had been very particular indeed about his wife, who, I am sorry to say, did not live long. But all this was nothing to the fuss he made about his wine. When the claret was not warm enough, or the Moselle wine was not cool enough, you could hear him roaring all over the house; for, though generous in heart and a staunch Churchman, he was immoderately choleric. Very often, when Sir Godfrey fell into one of his rages at dinner, old Popham, standing behind his chair, trembled so violently that his calves would shake loose, thus obliging him to hasten behind the tall leathern screen at the head of the banquet-hall and readjust them.

      Twice in each year the Baron sailed over to France, where he visited the wine-merchants, and tasted samples of all new vintages,—though they frequently gave him unmentionable aches. Then, when he was satisfied that he had selected the soundest and richest, СКАЧАТЬ