He nodded towards one of the chairs which stood against the wall. This was his way of inviting his visitor to sit down. His eyes were fixed, with strong disapproval, on the cigarette, which still smoked feebly in Lord Dunseverick’s hand.
“Your clerk gave me a hint,” said Dunseverick, “that you object to tobacco.”
“It’s my opinion,” said McMunn, “that the man who pays taxes that he needn’t pay—I’m alluding to the duty on tobacco, you’ll understand—for the sake of poisoning himself with a nasty stink, is little better than a fool. That’s my opinion, and I’m of the same way of thinking about alcoholic drink.”
Lord Dunseverick deposited the offending cigarette on the hearth and crushed it with his foot.
“Teetotaller?” he said. “I dare say you’re right, though I take a whisky-and-soda myself when I get the chance.”
“You’ll no get it here,” said McMunn; “and what’s more, you’ll no’ get it on any ship owned by me.”
“Thank you. It’s as well to understand before-hand.”
“I’m a believer in speaking plain,” said McMunn. “There’s ay less chance of trouble afterwards if a man speaks plain at the start. But I’m thinking that it wasn’t to hear my opinion on the Christian religion that your lordship came here the day.”
McMunn, besides being a teetotaller, and opposed to the smoking of tobacco, was the president of a Young Men’s Anti-Gambling League. He was, therefore, in a position to throw valuable light on the Christian religion.
“I came to settle the details about this expedition to Hamburg,” said Lord Dunseverick.