And Messer Grio here has served the State, so that some little indulgence----" "What art muttering ?" cried the bully, who spoke French with an accent new and strange in the student's ears.

"Let be! Let be, I say! Let them drink, or be pricked!" The merchants and the vintner took their glasses without demur: and, perhaps, though they shrugged their shoulders, were as willing as they looked.

The young man hesitated, took with a curling lip the glass which was presented to him, and then, a blush rising to his eyes, pushed it from him.
"'Tis good wine," the landlord repeated.

"And no charge.

Drink, young sir, and----" "I drink not on compulsion!" the student answered.
Messer Grio stared.