his young hand had grown to the needful size; but there was really no
valid good to anybody in those superstitious scruples about inanimate
objects. The ring had helped towards the recognition of him. Tito had
begun to dislike recognition, which was a claim from the past. This
foreigner's offer, if he would really give a good price, was an
opportunity for getting rid of the ring without the trouble of seeking a
purchaser.

"You speak with your usual wisdom, Bratti," said Tito. "I have no
objection to hear what your Genoese will offer. But when and where
shall I have speech of him?"

"To-morrow, at three hours after sunrise, he will be at my shop, and if
your wits are of that sharpness I have always taken them to be, Messer
Greco, you will ask him a heavy price; for he minds not money. It's my
belief he's buying for somebody else, and not for himself--perhaps for
some great signor."

"It is well," said Tito. "I will be at your shop, if nothing hinders."

"And you will doubtless deal nobly by me for old acquaintance' sake,
Messer Greco, so I will not stay to fix the small sum you will give me
in token of my service in the matter. It seems to me a thousand years
now till I get out of the piazza, for a fair is a dull, not to say a
wicked thing, when one has no more goods to sell."

Tito made a hasty sign of assent and adieu, and moving away from the
pillar, again found himself pushed towards the middle of the piazza and
back again, without the power of determining his own course. In this
zigzag way he was earned along to the end of the piazza opposite the
church, where, in a deep recess formed by an irregularity in the line of
houses, an entertainment was going forward which seemed to be especially
attractive to the crowd. Loud bursts of laughter interrupted a
monologue which was sometimes slow and oratorical, at others rattling
and buffoonish. Here a girl was being pushed forward into the inner
circle with apparent reluctance, and there a loud laughing minx was
finding a way with her own elbows. It was a strange light that was
spread over the piazza. There were the pale stars breaking out above,
and the dim waving lanterns below, leaving all objects indistinct except
when they were seen close under the fitfully moving lights; but in this
recess there was a stronger light, against which the heads of the
encircling spectators stood in dark relief as Tito was gradually pushed
towards them, while above them