"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."
This story, THE BACKGROUND, and MRS PACKLETIDE'S TIGER seem to me to be
the masterpieces of this book. In both of them Clovis exercises,
needlessly, his titular right of entry, but he can be removed without
damage, leaving Saki at his best and most characteristic, save that he
shows here, in addition to his own shining qualities, a compactness and
a finish which he did not always achieve. With these I introduce you
to him, confident that ten minutes of his conversation, more surely
than any words of mine, will have given him the freedom of your house.