The Story of the Uncouth Butler

Sandeman Sherry eventually acquired the Pemartin bodegas. The excesses and extravagances of Julian Pemartin, culminating in his Garnier-designed Paris Opera House-style palace in Jerez, led to his ruin. While the good days lasted, he lived on a magnifi­cent scale. There was no end to the splendor of his hospitality or to the excellence of his board, and his guests included famous men of every nationality. On one occasion a young and innocent English virgin went to stay at his house.

While she was there, she wanted to learn Spanish, and the butler was given the job of teaching her. He was apparently a roguish man with a perverse sense of humor, and he taught her not the Spanish she was expected to learn but a very different language adapted to suit his tastes. It included strange exclamations and unwholesome adjectives which, in his own special dictionary, corresponded to the most innocent English words. Many of his words, indeed, would not have been included in normal dictionaries at all.

After some weeks of lessons, she dared to try out her newly acquired knowledge on a dinner party of very proper gentlemen and strait-laced ladies. She opened her mouth to utter some pleasantry, and the company was aghast. She made some polite inquiry, and things became infinitely worse. The butler was summoned. Now the butler was an old friend as well as a servant of the family and he was greatly loved. There was a move to fire him on the spot but he was repentant and friendship prevailed. He was given the unenviable task of unteaching all the Spanish he had taught and beginning again.

He taught her not the Spanish she was expected to learn but a different language adapted to suit his tastes. It included strange exclamations and unwholesome adjectives which, in his own dictionary, corresponded to the most innocent English words.