They just drank temperately, and I drank temperately with them as an act of comradeship and accepted hospitality.

I did not care for it, neither wanted it nor did not want it, and so small was the impression made by it that I do not remember my first cocktail nor my first Scotch highball.
Well, I had a house.

When one is asked into other houses, he naturally asks others into his house.

Behold the rising standard of living.
Having been given drink in other houses, I could expect nothing else of myself than to give drink in my own house.

So I laid in a supply of beer and whisky and table claret.