"Will you drink ?" The other loosened the clasp of his hand upon the wood and drew himself upright.

"I eat the bread and drink the water which you give your servants," he answered, speaking with the thickness of hardly restrained passion.

"The wine cup goes from equal to equal." As he spoke he took up the peace offering, eyed it for a moment with a bitter smile, then flung it with force over his shoulder.

The earthen floor drank the wine; the china shivered into a thousand fragments.

"I have neither silver nor tobacco with which to pay for my pleasure," continued the still smiling storekeeper.