g 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?"

"Nay, Bratti," said the barber in an undertone, "thy wisdom has much of
the ass in it, as I told thee just now; especially about the ears. This
stranger is a Greek, else I'm not the barber who has had the sole and
exclusive shaving of the excellent Demetrio, and drawn more than one
sorry tooth from his learned jaw. And this youth might be taken to have
come straight from Olympus--at least when he has had a touch of my
razor."

"_Orsu_! Monna Ghita!" continued Nello, not sorry to see some sport;
"what has happened to cause such a thunderstorm? Has this young
stranger been misbehaving himself?"

"By San Giovanni!" said the cautious Bratti, who had not shaken off his
original suspicions concerning the shabbily-clad possessor of jewels,
"he did right to run away from _me_, if he meant to get into mischief.
I can swear that I found him under the Loggia de' Cerchi, with a ring on
his finger such as I've seen worn by Bernardo Rucellai himself. Not
another rusty nail's worth do I know about him."

"The fact is," said Nello, eyeing the stranger good-humouredly, "this
_bello giovane_ has been a little too presumptuous in admiring the
charms of Monna Ghita, and has attempted to kiss her while her
daughter's back is turned; for I observe that the pretty Tessa is too
busy to look this way at present. Was it not so, Messer?" Nello
concluded, in a tone of courtesy.

"You have divined the offence like a soothsayer," said the stranger,
laughingly. "Only that I had not the good fortune to find Monna Ghita
here at first. I begged a cup of milk from her daughter, and had
accepted this gift of bread, for which I was making a humble offering of
gratitude, before I had the higher pleasure of being face to face with
these riper charms which I was perhaps too bold in admiring."

"_Va, va_! be off, every one of you, and stay in purgatory till I pay to
get you out, will you?" said Monna Ghita, fiercely, elbowing Nello, and
leading forward her mule so as to compel the stranger to jump aside.
"Tessa, thou simpleton, bring forward thy mule a bit: the cart will be
upon us."

As Tessa turned to take the mule's bridle, she cast one timid glance at
the stranger, who was now moving with Nello out of the way of an
approachin