left the room.

"I'm very glad you have come to-day," said Jones, with much gravity. "He
never gives me any of that when I'm alone with him; and he never, by any
means, brings it out for company."

"You don't mean to accuse him of drinking it alone, Tom?" said his
sister, laughing.

"I don't know when he drinks it; I only know when he doesn't."

The wine was decanted with as much care as had been given to the
concoction of the gravy, and the clearness of the dark liquid was
scrutinized with an eye that was full of anxious care. "Now, Cissy, what
do you think of that? She knows a glass of good wine when she gets it,
as well as you do Harry, in spite of her contempt for the duck."

As they sipped the old port, they sat round the dining-room fire, and
Harry Clavering was forced to own to himself that he had never been more
comfortable.

"Ah," said Burton, stretching out his slippered feet, "why can't it all
be after-dinner, instead of that weary room at the Adelphi?"

"And all old port?" said Jones.

"Yes, and all old port. You are not such an ass as to suppose that a man
in suggesting to himself a continuance of pleasure suggests to himself
also the evils which are supposed to accompany such pleasure. If I took
much of the stuff I should get cross and sick, and make a beast of