I have warned him." But father Roland did not drink.

He sat looking at his glass full of the clear and luminous liquor while its light soul, its intoxicating soul, flew off in tiny bubbles mounting from its depths in hurried succession to die on the surface.

He looked at it with the suspicious eye of a fox smelling at a dead hen and suspecting a trap.

He asked doubtfully: "Do you think it will really do me much harm ?" Pierre had a pang of remorse and blamed himself for letting his ill-humour punish the rest.
"No," said he.

"Just for once you may drink it; but do not take too much, or get into the habit of it." Then old Roland raised his glass, but still he could not make up his mind to put it to his lips.