The Cloister and the Hearth Chapter 65

In which a storm drives Gerard into a lowly inn of Rome, where he overhears a sordid negotiation between a pardoner and a furtive man arranging the pre-sale of a sin’s absolution, revealing a catalogue of crimes with assigned prices most unsettling to a moral ear. The scene stirs a bitter reflection within Gerard, who, weighed by his own grief and despair, scarcely registers the shadowy figure that lingers near his dwelling.