Sherry led off the parade pace, Hock the trot into the merry canter, Champagne the racing gallop, Burgundy the grand trial of constitutional endurance for the enforced finish.

All these wines, except the sparkling, had their date of birth in the precedent century.

'They went like water.' Questioned anxiously by Dr.Glossop, Queeney maintained an impartial attitude, and said there was no victor, no vanquished.

They did not sit in blocks.

The tactics for preserving peace intermingled them.