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Updated: September 19, 2025
As Monna Ghita lifted her formidable talons by way of complying with the first and last requisite of eloquence, Bratti, who had come up a minute or two before, had been saying to his companion, "What think you of this pretty parrot, Nello? Doesn't his tongue smack of Venice?"
"Or frighten him either," said Nello, "after he has seen an Englander or a German." "No, no," said Bratti, cordially; "one may never lose sight of the Cupola and yet know the world, I hope. Besides, this stranger's clothes are good Italian merchandise, and the hose he wears were dyed in Ognissanti before ever they were dyed with salt water, as he says. But the riddle about him is "
Bratti covered up his basket, which was now filled with miscellanies, probably obtained under the same sort of circumstances as the yarn, and, moving from his pillar, came suddenly upon Tito, who, if he had had time, would have chosen to avoid recognition. "By the head of San Giovanni, now," said Bratti, drawing Tito back to the pillar, "this is a piece of luck.
"I say you may get twenty-one quattrini for it," said Bratti, coolly; "but not of me, for I haven't got that small change." "Come; two, then?" said the woman, getting exasperated, while her companion looked at her with some envy. "It will hardly be above two, I think." After further bidding, and further mercantile coquetry, Bratti put on an air of concession.
"All that is very amusing information you are parting with for nothing," said the stranger, rather scornfully; "but it happens not to concern me. I am no Hebrew." "See, now!" said Bratti, triumphantly; "I've made a good bargain with mere words. I've made you tell me something, young man, though you're as hard to hold as a lamprey.
For an instant he turned on Bratti with a sharp frown; but he immediately recovered an air of indifference, took off the red Levantine cap which hung like a great purse over his left ear, pushed back his long dark-brown curls, and glancing at his dress, said, smilingly
"But now let us set off to this said Mercato, for I feel the want of a better lining to this doublet of mine which you are coveting." "Coveting? Nay," said Bratti, heaving his bag on his back and setting out. "It's worth but little," he said presently, relapsing into his conversational tone. "Hose and altogether, your clothes are worth but little.
"Diavolo!" said Bratti, as he and his companion came, quite unnoticed, upon the noisy scene; "the Mercato is gone as mad as if the most Holy Father had excommunicated us again. I must know what this is. But never fear: it seems a thousand years to you till you see the pretty Tessa, and get your cup of milk; but keep hold of me, and I'll hold to my bargain.
But I have often said to him, `Bratti, thy bargain is a limping one, and thou art on the lame side of it. Does it not make thee a little sad to look at the pictures of the Paradiso?
"Your tunic and hose match ill with that jewel, young man," said Bratti, deliberately. "Anybody might say the saints had sent you a dead body; but if you took the jewels, I hope you buried him and you can afford a mass or two for him into the bargain." Something like a painful thrill appeared to dart through the frame of the listener, and arrest the careless stretching of his arms and chest.
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