'No; it is out of Mr. Audley's hamper.'
'The universal hamper. It is like the fairy gifts that produced unlimited eatables. I dreaded cowslip wine or periwinkle broth.'
'No, no, Papa,' sighed Alda, 'we only once made cowslip tea at Vale Leston.'
'Vale Leston is prohibited for the day.—Master Felix Chester Underwood, your good health; and the same to the new Underwood of Centry Underwood.'
'Shall we see him, Papa?' asked Alda.
'If either party desires the gratification, no doubt it will come about.'
'Shall not you call on him, Papa?'
'Certainly not before he comes. Mother, some of the wonderful bottle—ay, you covetous miser of a woman, or I'll make a libation of it all. Audley, it must have wrung your father's butler's heart to have thrown away this port on a pic-nic. What did you tell him to delude him?'
'Only what was true—that I was to meet a gentleman who was a judge of the article.'
'For shame!' he answered, laughing. 'What right had you to know that I knew the taste of Cape from Roriz?'