Here, plainly self-betrayed, was a medical man who was an exception to a general rule in the profession--here was a doctor ignorant of the difference between good wine and bad! Both the ladies were anxious to know how Mountjoy had passed the night at the inn.

He had only time to say that there was nothing to complain of, when Mr.Vimpany burst into an explosion of laughter.
"Oh, but you must have had something to complain of!" said the big doctor.

"I would bet a hundred, if I could afford it, that the landlady tried to poison you with her sour French wine." "Do you speak of the claret at the inn, after having tasted it ?" Mountjoy asked.
"What do you take me for ?" cried Mr.Vimpany.

"After all I have heard of that claret, I am not fool enough to try it myself, I can tell you." Mountjoy received this answer in silence.

The doctor's ignorance and the doctor's prejudice, in the matter of wine, had started a new train of thought in Hugh's mind, which threatened serious consequences to Mr.
Vimpany himself.