Mr. Ryan laughed.
"But you used to be, or that is—well, something leads me to think that you are one of the Bible temperance men. Are you not?"
Theodore fixed a pair of full, earnest, unashamed eyes on the questioner's face before he said:
"Yes, sir, I entirely agree with Habakkuk on that subject to-day as in the past."
"Well then," said Mr. Ryan, dashing into the subject, "I'm in need of enlightenment. Isn't there a story in the Bible about a certain wedding, at which our Savior countenanced the use of wine not only by his presence, but by actually furnishing the wine itself by his own miraculous power?"
"There is such a story," said Theodore, continuing to quietly sip his coffee.
"Well, how do you account for it?"
"I suppose, sir, you know how great and good men account for it?" questioned Theodore.
"Oh yes, I know the story by heart, about two kinds of wine—one intoxicating, the other not, and that this wine at the marriage feast was of the non-intoxicating sort; but that at best is only supposition, not argument. I have as good a right to suppose it was intoxicating as you have to suppose it was not."
"Have you?" said Theodore, with elevated eyebrows. "In that we should differ."