self up with
an air of offended dignity. "I don't understand you."

"You have been drinking," said Mr. Elliott, in a tone of severity.

"No, sir. I deny it, sir!" and the eyes of Mr. Ridley flashed. "Before
Heaven, sir, not a drop has passed my lips to-day!"

His breath, loaded with the fumes of a recent glass of whisky, was
filling the clergyman's nostrils. Mr. Elliott was confounded by this
denial. What was to be done with such a man?

"Not a drop, sir," repeated Mr. Ridley. "The vile stuff is killing me.
I must give it up."

"It is your only hope," said the clergyman. "You must give up the vile
stuff, as you call it, or it will indeed kill you."

"That's just why I've come to you, Mr. Elliott. You understand this
matter better than most people. I've heard you talk."

"Heard me talk?"

"Yes, sir. It's pure wine that the people want. My sentiments exactly.
If we had pure wine, we'd have no drunkenness. You know that as well as
I do. I've heard you talk, Mr. Elliott, and you talk right--yes, right,
sir."

"When did you hear me talk?" asked Mr. Elliott, who was beginning to
feel worried.

"Oh, at a party last winter. I was there and heard you."

"What did I say?"

"Just these words, and they took right hold of me. You said that 'pure
wine could hurt no one, unless indeed his appetite were vitiated by the
use of alcohol, and even then you believed that the moderate use of
strictly pure wine would restore the normal taste and free a man from
the tyranny of an enslaving vice.' That set me to thinking. It sounded
just right. And then you were a clergyman, you see, and had studied out
these things and so your opinion was worth something. There's no reason
in your cold-water men; they don't believe in anything but their patent
cut-off. In their eyes wine is an abomination, the mother of all evil,
though the Bible doesn't say so, Mr. Elliott, does it?"

At this reference to the Bible in connection with wine, the clergyman's
memory supplied a few passages that were not at the moment pleasant to
recall. Such as, "Wine is a mocker;" "Look not upon the wine when it is
red;" "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? ... They that tarry long at the
wine;" "At last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."

"The Bible speaks often of the misuse of wine," he answered, "and
strongly condemns drunkenness."

"Of course it does, and gluttony as well. But against the moderate use
of good wine not a word is said. Isn't