`` Ahem ! '' said Colonel Killigrew , who believed not a word of the doctor 's story ; `` and what may be the effect of this fluid on the human frame ? '' `` You shall judge for yourself , my dear colonel , '' replied Dr. Heidegger . -- `` And all of you , my respected friends , are welcome to so much of this admirable fluid as may restore to you the bloom of youth . For my own part , having had much trouble in growing old , I am in no hurry to grow young again . With your permission , therefore , I will merely watch the progress of the experiment . '' While he spoke Dr. Heidegger had been filling the four champagne-glasses with the water of the Fountain of Youth . It was apparently impregnated with an effervescent gas , for little bubbles were continually ascending from the depths of the glasses and bursting in silvery spray at the surface . As the liquor diffused a pleasant perfume , the old people doubted not that it possessed cordial and comfortable properties , and , though utter sceptics as to its rejuvenescent power , they were inclined to swallow it at once . But Dr. Heidegger besought them to stay a moment . `` Before you drink , my respectable old friends , '' said he , `` it would be well that , with the experience of a lifetime to direct you , you should draw up a few general rules for your guidance in passing a second time through the perils of youth . Think what a sin and shame it would be if , with your peculiar advantages , you should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age ! '' The doctor 's four venerable friends made him no answer except by a feeble and tremulous laugh , so very ridiculous was the idea that , knowing how closely Repentance treads behind the steps of Error , they should ever go astray again . `` Drink , then , '' said the doctor , bowing ; `` I rejoice that I have so well selected the subjects of my experiment . '' With palsied hands they raised the glasses to their lips . The liquor , if it really possessed such virtues as Dr. Heidegger imputed to it , could not have been bestowed on four human beings who needed it more woefully . They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was , but had been the offspring of Nature 's dotage , and always the gray , decrepit , sapless , miserable creatures who now sat stooping round the doctor 's table without life enough in their souls or bodies to be animated even by the prospect of growing young again . They drank off the water and replaced their glasses on the table . Assuredly , there was an almost immediate improvement in the aspect of the party -- not unlike what might have been produced by a glass of generous wine -- together with a sudden glow of cheerful sunshine , brightening over all their visages at once . There was a healthful suffusion on their cheeks instead of the ashen hue that had made them look so corpse-like .
They gazed at one another , and fancied XXXXX some magic power had really begun to smooth away the deep and sad inscriptions which Father Time had been so long engraving on their brows .
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