"I said nothing! It was only that he would not drink and I----" "Made him ?" "No, he would not, I say, and we were coming to blows.

And then----" "He gave back, did he ?" "No, Messer Blondel came in." Caesar Basterga stretched out his huge arms.

"Fool! Fool! Fool!" he hissed, with a gesture of despair.

"There it is! And Blondel, who should have sent you to the whipping-post, or out of Geneva, has to cloak you! And men ask why, and what there is between our most upright Syndic and a drunken, bragging----" "Softly," Grio muttered, with a flash of sullen resentment.

"Softly, Messer Basterga! I----" "A drunken, swilling, prating pig!" the other persisted.