"Drunk it all up?" "No, no; sent it off and sold it." "What was the matter with it!" "Why, I tell you," said Esther, "it is thought improper for good people to drink wine." Fenton's face was rather funny to see, there was such a blank dismay in it. "And did mamma give in to that?" "I don't know what mamma thought," said Esther; "but papa sold the wine; and our dinner-table does not have its pretty coloured glasses any more." Fenton uttered a smothered exclamation which I am afraid would have shocked his sisters. "I don't see what _you_ want with wine, Fenton," said Maggie; "papa never let you have it." "Mamma did though," said Fenton. "That's the good of having two parents. If one is crochety perhaps the other will be straight. Well, _I'm_ not going to live if I can't live like a gentleman. I shall send to Forbes to send me some wine." His sisters burst out into horrified exclamations and expostulations. "Papa'll see it in the bill," said Esther, "and he'll be very angry." "Uncle Eden is coming," said Maggie, "and it will be no use. He'd throw it into the river." "Uncle Eden coming?" The girls nodded. "If I had known that _I_ wouldn't have come!" said Fenton looking very dark. "I'd think better of it if I were you," remarked Meredith quietly. "There goes more to the making of a gentleman than the drinking of wine." "What do you mean?" "Just that. As for instance--self-control, noble thoughts, care for others above himself, indifference to low pleasures." "Low pleasures!" repeated Fenton. "Do you call wine a low pleasure?" "Well, it brings people into the gutter." "Pshaw! not gentlemen." "I grant you they are not gentlemen after they get there." "What do you know about it?" said the boy not very politely. "Did you ever drink it yourself?" "I never will again. A gentleman should be a free man; and wine makes men slaves. I don't choose to be in bondage. And if it would not enslave me, it does other people; and I would not give it the help of my example."