n into my recital some
circumstances of my own addition. Yet, engrossed as he was by what I had
told him, he could not help taking notice that I drank more water than
usual that evening.

In fact, the wine had made me very thirsty. Any one but Sangrado would
have distrusted my being so very dry as to swallow down glass after glass;
but, as for him, he took it for granted in the simplicity of his heart
that I had begun to acquire a relish for aqueous potations.

"Apparently, Gil Blas," said he, with a gracious smile, "you have no
longer such a dislike to water. As Heaven is my judge, you quaff it off
like nectar! It is no wonder, my friend; I was certain you would before
long take a liking to that liquor."

"Sir," replied I, "there is a tide in the affairs of men; with my present
lights I would give all the wine in Valladolid for a pint of water."

This answer delighted the doctor, who would not lose so fine an
opportunity of expatiating on the excellence of water. He undertook to
ring the changes once more in its praise; not like a hireling pleader, but
as an enthusiast in a most worthy cause.

"A thousand times," exclaimed he, "a thousand and a thousand times of
greater value, as being more innocent than all our modern taverns, were
those baths of ages past, whither the people went, not shamefully to
squander their fortunes and expose their lives by swilling themselves with
wine, but assembling there for the decent and economical amusement of
drinking warm water. It is difficult to admire enough the patriotic
forecast of those ancient politicians who established places of public
resort where water was dealt out gratis to all comers, and who confined
wine to the shops of the apothecaries, that its use might be prohibited
save under the direction of physicians. What a stroke of wisdom! It is
doubtless to preserve the seeds of that antique frugality, emblematic of
the golden age, that persons are found to this day, like you and me, who
drink nothing but water, and are persuaded they possess a prevention or a
cure for every ailment, provided our warm water has never boiled; for I
have observed that water when it is boiled is heavier, and sits less
easily on the stomach."

While he was holding forth thus eloquently, I was in danger more than once
of splitting my sides with laughing. But I contrived to keep my
countenance; nay, more, to chime in with the doctor's theory. I found
fault with the use of wine, and pitied m