Jovial Mr. Vimpany pushed the bottle across the table to his guest, and
held out a handful of big black cigars.

"Now for the juice of the grape," he cried, "and the best cigar in all
England!"

He had just filled his glass, and struck a light for his cigar, when
the servant came in with a note. Some men relieve their sense of
indignation in one way, and some in another. The doctor's form of
relief was an oath. "Talk about slavery!" he shouted. "Find me such a
slave in all Africa as a man in my profession. There isn't an hour of
the day or night that he can call his own. Here's a stupid old woman
with an asthma, who has got another spasmodic attack--and I must leave
my dinner-table and my friend, just as we are enjoying ourselves. I
have half a mind not to go."

The inattentive guest suddenly set himself right in his host's
estimation. Hugh remonstrated with an appearance of interest in the
case, which the doctor interpreted as a compliment to himself: "Oh, Mr.
Vimpany, humanity! humanity!"

"Oh, Mr. Mountjoy, money! money!" the facetious doctor answered. "The
old lady is our Mayor's mother, sir. You don't seem to be quick at
taking a joke. Make your mind easy; I shall pocket my fee."

As soon as he had closed the door, Hugh Mountjoy uttered a devout
ejaculation. "Thank God!" he said--and walked up and down the room,
free to think without interruption at last.

The subject of his meditations was the influence of intoxication in