"You can hear him, ma'am." It was quite true; Mr.Vimpany's snoring answered for Mr.Vimpany.His wife ascended the first two or three stairs, and stopped to speak again to the waiter.

She asked what the two gentlemen had taken to drink with their dinner.

They had taken "the French wine." "And nothing else ?" The waiter ventured on a little joke.

"Nothing else," he said--"and more than enough of it, too." "Not more than enough, I suppose, for the good of the house," Mrs.
Vimpany remarked.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am; the claret the two gentlemen drank is not charged for in the bill." "What do you mean ?" The waiter explained that Mr.Mountjoy had purchased the whole stock of the wine.

Suspicion, as well as surprise, appeared in Mrs.Vimpany's face.