be only right to give you an opportunity to avail of Doctor Kline's
acknowledged skill. I am sure you can do so safely."

But Mr. Carlton was very emphatic in his rejection of Dr. Kline.

"I may be a little peculiar," he said, "but do you know I never
trust any important interest with a man who drinks habitually?--one
of your temperate drinkers, I mean, who can take his three or four
glasses of wine at dinner, or twice that number, during an evening
while playing at whist, but who never debases himself by so low a
thing as intoxication."

"Are not you a little peculiar, or, I might say, over-nice, in
this?" remarked Doctor Hillhouse.

"No, I am only prudent. Let me give you a fact in my own experience.
I had a law-suit several years ago involving many thousands of
dollars. My case was good, but some nice points of law were
involved, and I needed for success the best talent the bar afforded.
A Mr. B----, I will call him, stood very high in the profession, and
I chose him for my counsel. He was a man of fine social qualities,
and admirable for his after-dinner speeches. You always met him on
public occasions. He was one of your good temperate drinkers and not
afraid of a glass of wine, or even brandy, and rarely, if ever,
refused a friend who asked him to drink.

"He was not an intemperate man, of course. No one dreamed of setting
him over among that banned and rejected class of men whom few trust,
and against whom all are on guard. He held his place of honor and
confidence side by side with the most trusted men in his profession.