“Then you ask for a wine without knowing what it is?”
“I ask for it, sir, that I may know what it is.”
“Well, there is logic in that, as Parr would say; you have heard of Parr?”
“Old Parr?”
“Yes, old Parr, but not that Parr; you mean the English, I the Greek Parr, as people call him.”
“I don’t know him.”
“Perhaps not—rather too young for that; but were you of my age, you might have cause to know him, coming from where you do. He kept school there, I was his first scholar; he flogged Greek into me till I loved him—and he loved me; he came to see me last year, and sat in that chair; I honour Parr—he knows much, and is a sound man.”
“Does he know the truth?”
“Know the truth! he knows what’s good, from an oyster to an ostrich—he’s not only sound but round.”
“Suppose we drink his health?”