"What ?" he roared.

"You----" "I drink not on compulsion," the young man repeated, and this time he spoke clearly and firmly.

"Had the gentleman asked me courteously to drink with him, that were another matter.

But----" "Sho!" the vintner muttered, nudging him in pure kindness.

"Drink, man, and a fico for his courtesy so the wine be old! When the drink is in, the sense is out, and," lowering his voice, "he'll let you blood to a certainty, if you will not humour him." But the grinning faces in the doorway hardened the student in his resolution.