This power is
but vague, slight, tenuous, and dissipatory, still there it is: though
of course its poor effect is to that of the _Benedictio major_ what a
cat's-paw in the Solent is to a north-east snorter on Lindsey Deeps.
I am sorry to have been at such length, but it is necessary to have
these things thrashed out once for all. So now you see how I, being on
pilgrimage, could give a kind of little creeping blessing to the
people on the way, though, as St Louis said to the Hascisch-eaters,
_'May it be a long time before you can kiss my bones.'_
So I entered the 'Sun' inn and saw there a woman sewing, a great
dull-faced man like an ox, and a youth writing down figures in a
little book. I said -
'Good morning, madam, and sirs, and the company. Could you give me a
little red wine?' Not a head moved.
True I was very dirty and tired, and they may have thought me a
beggar, to whom, like good sensible Christians who had no nonsense
about them, they would rather have given a handsome kick than a cup of
cold water. However, I think it was not only my poverty but a native
churlishness which bound their bovine souls in that valley.
I sat down at a very clean table. I notice that those whom the Devil
has made his own are always spick and span, just as firemen who have
to go into great furnaces have to keep all their gear highly polished.
I sat down at it, and said again, still gently -
'It is, indeed, a fine country this of yours. Could you give me a
little red wine?'
Then the ox-faced man who had his back turned to me, and was the worst
of the lot, said sulkily, not to me, but to the woman -
'He wants wine.'
The woman as sulkily said to me, not looking me in the eyes -
'How much will you pay?'
I said, 'Bring the wine. Set it here. See me drink it. Charge me your
due.'
I found that this brutal way of speaking was just what was needed for
the kine and cattle of this pen. She skipped off to a cupboard, and
set wine before me, and a glass. I drank quite quietly till I had had
enough, and asked what there was to pay. She said 'Threepence,' and I
said 'Too much,' as I paid it. At this the ox-faced man grunted and
frowned, and I was afraid; but hiding my fear I walked out boldly and
slowly, and made a noise with my stick upon the floor of the hall
without.
