But in comment, in reference, in description, in
every development of his story, he has a choice of words, a "way
of putting things" which is as inevitably his own vintage as, once
tasted, it becomes the private vintage of the connoisseur.
Let us take a sample or two of "Saki, 1911."
"The earlier stages of the dinner had worn off. The wine lists
had been consulted, by some with the blank embarrassment of a
schoolboy suddenly called upon to locate a Minor Prophet in the
tangled hinterland of the Old Testament, by others with the severe
scrutiny which suggests that they have visited most of the higher-
priced wines in their own homes and probed their family
weaknesses."
"Locate" is the pleasant word here. Still more satisfying, in the
story of the man who was tattooed "from collar-bone to waist-line
with a glowing representation of the Fall of Icarus," is the word
"privilege":
"The design when finally developed was a slight disappointment to
Monsieur Deplis, who had suspected Icarus of being a fortress
taken by Wallenstein in the Thirty Years' War, but he was more
than satisfied with the execution of the work, which was acclaimed
by all who had the privilege of seeing it as Pincini's
masterpiece.
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