“Exactly; wine that is pure hurts no one, unless, indeed, his appetite has been vitiated through alcoholic indulgence, and even then I have sometimes thought 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 sentence took quick hold upon the thought of Mr. Ridley.  It gave him a new idea, and he listened with keen interest to what followed.

“You strike the keynote of a true temperance reformation, Mr. Elliott,” returned the host.  “Give men pure wine instead of the vile stuff that bears its name, and you will soon get rid of drunkenness.  I have always preached that doctrine.”

“And I imagine you are about right,” answered Mr. Elliott.  “Wine is one of God’s gifts, and must be good.  If men abuse it sometimes, it is nothing more than they do with almost every blessing the Father of all mercies bestows upon his children.  The abuse of a thing is no argument against its use.”

Mrs. Ridley drew upon the arm of her husband.  She did not like the tenor of this conversation, and wanted to get him away.  But he was interested in what the clergyman was saying, and wished to hear what further he might adduce in favor of the health influence of pure wine.

“I have always used wine, and a little good brandy too, and am as free from any inordinate appetite as your most confirmed abstainer; but then I take especial care to have my liquor pure.”

“A thing not easily done,” said the clergyman, replying to their host.

“Not easy for every one, but yet possible.  I have never found much difficulty.”

“There will be less difficulty, I presume,” returned Mr. Elliott, “when this country becomes, as it soon will, a large wine producing region.  When cheap wines take the place of whisky, we will have a return to temperate habits among the lower classes, and not, I am satisfied, before.  There is, and always has been, a craving in the human system for some kind of stimulus.  After prolonged effort there is exhaustion and nervous languor that cannot always wait upon the restorative work of nutrition; indeed, the nutritive organs themselves often need stimulation before they can act with due vigor.  Isn’t that so, Dr. Hillhouse?”

And the clergyman addressed a handsome old man with hair almost as white as snow who stood listening to the conversation.  He held a glass of wine in his hand.

“You speak with the precision of a trained pathologist,” replied the person addressed, bowing gracefully and with considerable manner as he spoke.  “I could not have said it better, Mr. Elliott.”

The clergyman received the compliment with a pleased smile and bowed his acknowledgments, then remarked: 

“You think as I do about the good effects that must follow a large product of American wines?”

Dr. Hillhouse gave a little shrug.

“Oh, then you don’t agree with me?”