Meanwhile , the three gentlemen behaved in such a manner as proved that the water of the Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities -- unless , indeed , their exhilaration of spirits were merely a lightsome dizziness caused by the sudden removal of the weight of years . Mr. Gascoigne 's mind seemed to run on political topics , but whether relating to the past , present or future could not easily be determined , since the same ideas and phrases have been in vogue these fifty years . Now he rattled forth full-throated sentences about patriotism , national glory and the people 's right ; now he muttered some perilous stuff or other in a sly and doubtful whisper , so cautiously that even his own conscience could scarcely catch the secret ; and now , again , he spoke in measured accents and a deeply-deferential tone , as if a royal ear were listening to his well-turned periods . Colonel Killigrew all this time had been trolling forth a jolly bottle-song and ringing his glass in symphony with the chorus , while his eyes wandered toward the buxom figure of the widow Wycherly . On the other side of the table , Mr. Medbourne was involved in a calculation of dollars and cents with which was strangely intermingled a project for supplying the East Indies with ice by harnessing a team of whales to the polar icebergs . As for the widow Wycherly , she stood before the mirror courtesying and simpering to her own image and greeting it as the friend whom she loved better than all the world besides . She thrust her face close to the glass to see whether some long-remembered wrinkle or crow 's - foot had indeed vanished ; she examined whether the snow had so entirely melted from her hair that the venerable cap could be safely thrown aside . At last , turning briskly away , she came with a sort of dancing step to the table . `` My dear old doctor , '' cried she , `` pray favor me with another glass . '' `` Certainly , my dear madam -- certainly , '' replied the complaisant doctor . `` See ! I have already filled the glasses . '' There , in fact , stood the four glasses brimful of this wonderful water , the delicate spray of which , as it effervesced from the surface , resembled the tremulous glitter of diamonds . It was now so nearly sunset that the chamber had grown duskier than ever , but a mild and moonlike splendor gleamed from within the vase and rested alike on the four guests and on the doctor 's venerable figure . He sat in a high-backed , elaborately-carved oaken arm-chair with a gray dignity of aspect that might have well befitted that very Father Time whose power had never been disputed save by this fortunate company . Even while quaffing the third draught of the Fountain of Youth , they were almost awed by the expression of his mysterious visage . But the next moment the exhilarating gush of young life shot through their veins . They were now in the happy prime of youth . Age , with its miserable train of cares and sorrows and diseases , was remembered only as the trouble of a dream from which they had joyously awoke . The fresh gloss of the soul , so early lost and without which the world 's successive scenes had been but a gallery of faded pictures , again threw its enchantment over all their prospects .
They felt like new-created beings XXXXX a new-created universe .
At On about as by for in that through while