Chocolate Remedy was designed to alleviate the symptoms while
captivating the palate. It was one of the most agreeable remedies that
the wit of man ever invented. It tasted like chocolate and yet there was
an astringent flavour of lemon in it--a flavour that flattered the
stomach into a good opinion of itself, and seemed to say, "All's right
with the world." The stuff was retailed in sixpenny packets, and you
were advised to eat only a very little of it at a time, and not to
masticate, but merely to permit melting. Then the Chocolate Remedy came
to be sold on the lifeboat itself, and you were informed that if you
"took" it before starting on the wave, no wave could disarrange you.
And, indeed, many persons who followed this advice suffered no distress,
and were proud accordingly, and duly informed the world. Then the
Chocolate Remedy began to be sold everywhere. Young people bought it
because they enjoyed it, and perfectly ignored the advice against
over-indulgence and against mastication. The Chocolate Remedy penetrated
like the refrain of a popular song to other seaside places. It was on
sale from Morecambe to Barmouth, and at all the landing-stages of the
steamers for the Isle of Man and Anglesey. Nothing surprised Denry so
much as the vogue of the Chocolate Remedy. It was a serious anxiety to
him, and he muddled both the manufacture and distribution of the remedy,
from simple ignorance and inexperience. His chief difficulty at first
had been to obtain small cakes of chocolate that were not stamped with
the maker's name or mark. Chocolate manufacturers seemed to have a
passion for imprinting their Quakerly names on every bit of stuff they
sold. Having at length obtained a supply, he was silly enough to spend
time in preparing the remedy himself in his bedroom! He might as well
have tried to feed the British Army from his mother's kitchen. At length
he went to a confectioner in Rhyl and a greengrocer in Llandudno, and by
giving away half the secret to each, he contrived to keep the whole
secret to himself. But even then he was manifestly unequal to the
situation created by the demand for the Chocolate Remedy. It was a
situation that needed the close attention of half a dozen men of
business. It was quite different from the affair of the lifeboat.

One night a man who had been staying a day or two in the boarding-house
in St Asaph's Road said to Denry:

"Look here, mister. I go straight to the point. What'll you take?