"Four o'clock," said Meredith, looking at his watch. "Just the pretty time of day coming now."
"It'll be dinner-time by the time you get the cart home and the girls get dressed. What did you come out here so far for? I haven't had a respectable dinner for six months. I am going to have some wine to-day, if the governor is away."
"Governor!" cried Esther. "What a vulgar expression for Fenton Candlish to use!"
"Wine!" exclaimed Maggie. "You can't have any wine, Fenton; we don't drink wine any more in this house."
"What's the matter!"
"The matter is, papa has emptied his wine-cellar," said Esther in a rather aggrieved tone.
"Drunk it all up?"
"No, no; sent it off and sold it."
"What was the matter with it!"
"Why, I tell you," said Esther, "it is thought improper for good people to drink wine."