About this story
The trial by fire is rained out, the mob turns on the friar, and at the corner of the Old Bridge a beggar with an iron bowl says your name in the old Greek. Sixty-five chapters carry the bargains of a shipwrecked scholar to his father's hands, and the house Romola keeps to a fig tree in October.
How it opens
Dawn reached the Loggia de' Cerchi through narrow streets loud with carts and wool workers.
Bratti FerravecchiLorenzo is dead, and Florence will bargain twice as hard while mourning him.
Bratti FerravecchiGuard that ring, stranger; Florence bargains even with sleeping men.
You rose from the stones in salt-stiff clothes, hungry after shipwreck and a night without shelter.
Bratti FerravecchiI am Bratti, dealer in useful ruins, and directions also have a price.
Choose
Guide me to the market, and bid first on these clothes when I replace them.
Take this clasp for enough bread and one honest introduction.