I was dead beat, and had had no food.

I have always been a fairly abstemious chap; in my profession we have to be: woe betide the man who isn't.

But since I saw that chair standing on its four legs in the mirror, when it was lying broken on the floor in reality, I have not touched a drop of alcohol.

There! I make you a present of that for your next temperance meeting.

Now let's go out and buck Ronnie up.