The Dukedom of Aberdeen 香港仔公國

Once - it was in Naples - they had curious encounter. A stranger hearing them speak in English asked whether he might join them over their coffee. There was something familiar and to them vaguely disagreeable about his face, but he kept them charmed by his wit for more than an hour before he said goodbye. They didn’t exchange names even at parting and he left them to pay for his drink which was certainly not coffee. It was some while before they realized in whose company they had been. The stranger is Oscar Wilde, who not very long before had been released from prison. “Think,” would alway conclude his story, “how lonely he must have been to have expended so much time and wit on a couple schoolmasters on holiday.” It never occurred to him that Wilde was paying for his drink in the only currency he had.

摘自葛林（Graham Greene）的少年回憶錄《A Sort of Life》（台灣譯作《小說家的人生》）。

葛林的父親是嚴肅的公立中學的校長，老葛林有位既是牧師也是校長的朋友喬治先生（George是姓氏，他們都非常拘禮地以姓氏相稱），兩人時會相約度寒假。長大後終日聲色犬馬的葛林覺得父親度假是求知多於享樂（more intellectual than convival），因為他經常提及的「戰績」，不過是某年與喬治先生在法國一同飲光一瓶葡萄酒。