MR. ELWES, who united the most rigid parsimony with the most gentlemanly
sentiments, received a present of some very _fine wine_ from a wine
merchant, who knew that nothing could so win his heart as small gifts.
It had the effect to obtain from him the loan of several hundred pounds.
Mr. Elwes, who could never ask a gentleman for money, and who was a
perfect philosopher as to his losses, used jocularly to say, "It was
indeed very fine wine; for it cost him twenty pounds a bottle."