“Only a little,” Mr. Guppy explains.
The old man’s eye resting on the empty bottle, he takes it up, examines it, and slowly tilts it upside down.
“I say!” he cries like the hobgoblin in the story. “Somebody’s been making free here!”
“I assure you we found it so,” says Mr. Guppy. “Would you allow me to get it filled for you?”
“Yes, certainly I would!” cries Krook in high glee. “Certainly I would! Don’t mention it! Get it filled next door—Sol’s Arms—the Lord Chancellor’s fourteenpenny. Bless you, they know me !”
He so presses the empty bottle upon Mr. Guppy that that gentleman, with a nod to his friend, accepts the trust and hurries out and hurries in again with the bottle filled. The old man receives it in his arms like a beloved grandchild and pats it tenderly.
“But, I say,” he whispers, with his eyes screwed up, after tasting