He called it ruby liquor and said that, taken in moderation, it would harm no one, though he estimated that as few as three glasses would cause people to climb trees like a monkey.
The Wilbur twin was puzzled by this and would have preferred that his present be devoted solely to making a new man of Judge Penniman, but he laughed loyally with his father, and rejoiced when Mrs.Penniman, in the character of the abandoned duchess, put her own lips to the glass at his father's urging.

The judge did not enter into this spirit of foolery, resenting, indeed, that a sound medicinal compound should be thus impugned.

And Winona was even more severe.

Not for her to-day were jests about Madame la Marquise and her heart of adamant.

Dave Cowan tried a few of these without result.
Winona was still silent with importance, or spoke cryptically, and she lavished upon the Merle twin such attention as she could give from her own mysterious calculations.