"
On his way Willet bought from a small boy in the street a copy each of
the _Weekly Post-Boy_ and of the _Weekly Gazette_ and _Mercury_,
folding them carefully and putting them in an inside pocket of his
coat.
"I am one to value the news sheets," he said. "They don't tell
everything, but they tell something and 'tis better to know something
than nothing. Just a bit farther, my lads, and we'll be at the steps
of honest Master Hardy. There, you can see where fortunes are made and
lost, though we're a bit too late to see the dealers!"
He pointed to the Royal Exchange, a building used by the merchants at
the foot of Broad Street, a structure very unique in its plan. It
consisted of an upper story resting upon arches, the lower part,
therefore, being entirely open. Beneath these arches the merchants met
and transacted business, and also in a room on the upper floor, where
there were, too, a coffee house and a great room used for banquets,
and the meetings of societies, the Royal Exchange being in truth the
beginning of many exchanges that now mark the financial center of the
New World.
"Perhaps we'll see the merchants there tomorrow," said Willet.
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