1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II Beeing an Exotic Drinking Book

THE GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION

So O'Malley asked for a nutcracker in his Union City, New Jersey, French, and bottles of things, and a shaker and a bowl of ice, and the maitre-d'hotel had it fetched with a suspicious but he'll-pay-beaucoup– for-his-fun gleam in his agate eyes, and O'Malley mixed. He first cracked 4 cherry pits with that darned nutcracker and dropped them in a cocktail glass. Then he put rYz jiggers of k_irsch, r pony of cherry brandy, r tsp of maraschino, into the shaker, and shook it with the ice. Then he poured it onto the broken pits, stirred it for a second to let the aromatic bitter odour and taste penetrate the drink, then handed it to me. And it was good. "T-hat, Pal,"-O'Malley was the soul of companionship for a chauf– feur-companion, we might state--"is a swell drink, see? That drink has what it takes-irpagination, see? That's it, imagination. No drink is worth a damn without imagination. It doesn't take any imagination to just say 'Scotchansoda,' now does it? It's good enough to give Celeste's old man, and if it's good enough for that it's plenty good enough for a name. It must be garnished with 2 red cherries, Eh? 2; sure! ... Let's name it the Virgin's Prayer. Eh? What do you think, Esle?" Esle was our Miss Tiller du jour. Esle was just eighteen, with curly brown hair and brown eyes, and breakfast ankles. She was very English, very sane, very passionate. She looked at him calmly. She sipped the drink. "I don't trust the Irish, O'Malley," she said evenly; "or their names." · · . "Garfon, scotchansoda," she said to the hovering waiter. Now of course we don't expect that when our most dutiful readers are faced with a bowl of cherries they will all have nutcrackers within ordering distance. Or Tiller girls. But if they have, and the spirit of adventure is not dead, they may try this pungent drink. Try an O'Malley Virgin's Prayer. It really is a sound cocktail, and worthy to be known among all men. VANILLA PUNCH, another RECEIPT from the PLANTATION FILES of ONE CLYMER BROOKE, MENTIONED ELSEWHERE in this WoRK Brooke was the one who fell in love with Tahiti, and left the round-

• 1 34.