In the cellar, it was the turn for the drum.  Dr. Middleton was tongue-tied there.  Sir Willoughby gave the history of his wine in heads of chapters; whence it came to the family originally, and how it had come down to him in the quantity to be seen.  “Curiously, my grandfather, who inherited it, was a water-drinker.  My father died early.”

“Indeed!  Dear me!” the doctor ejaculated in astonishment and condolence.  The former glanced at the contrariety of man, the latter embraced his melancholy destiny.

He was impressed with respect for the family.  This cool vaulted cellar, and the central square block, or enceinte, where the thick darkness was not penetrated by the intruding lamp, but rather took it as an eye, bore witness to forethoughtful practical solidity in the man who had built the house on such foundations.  A house having a great wine stored below lives in our imaginations as a joyful house, fast and splendidly rooted in the soil.  And imagination has a place for the heir of the house.  His grandfather a water-drinker, his father dying early, present circumstances to us arguing predestination to an illustrious heirship and career.  Dr Middleton’s musings were coloured by the friendly vision of glasses of the great wine; his mind was festive; it pleased him, and he chose to indulge in his whimsical, robustious, grandiose-airy style of thinking:  from which the festive mind will sometimes take a certain print that we cannot obliterate immediately.  Expectation is grateful, you know; in the mood of gratitude we are waxen.  And he was a self-humouring gentleman.

He liked Sir Willoughby’s tone in ordering the servant at his heels to take up “those two bottles”:  it prescribed, without overdoing it, a proper amount of caution, and it named an agreeable number.

Watching the man’s hand keenly, he said: 

“But here is the misfortune of a thing super-excellent:—­not more than one in twenty will do it justice.”

Sir Willoughby replied:  “Very true, sir; and I think we may pass over the nineteen.”

“Women, for example; and most men.”

“This wine would be a scaled book to them.”

“I believe it would.  It would be a grievous waste.”

“Vernon is a claret man; and so is Horace De Craye.  They are both below the mark of this wine.  They will join the ladies.  Perhaps you and I, sir, might remain together.”

“With the utmost good-will on my part.”

“I am anxious for your verdict, sir.”

“You shall have it, sir, and not out of harmony with the chorus preceding me, I can predict.  Cool, not frigid.”  Dr. Middleton summed the attributes of the cellar on quitting it.  “North side and South.  No musty damp.  A pure air.  Everything requisite.  One might lie down one’s self and keep sweet here.”