"It is such a lovely name," he said. "I never heard it spoken before."
"You like it?" she asked.
"Very much, indeed."
The girl puckered her brows in thought. She had beautiful penciled brows and a forehead that denoted an intelligence that was belied by neither her eyes, her manner, nor her speech. "I am glad that you like my name, but I do not understand why I should be glad. You say that you are a barbarian. Your appearance and your manner are those of a patrician, though perhaps you are overbold with a young woman you have never met before, but that I ascribe to the ignorance of the barbarian and so I forgive it."
"Being a barbarian has its compensations," laughed von Harben, "and perhaps I am a barbarian. I may be again forgiven if I say you are quite the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and the only one—I—could—," he hesitated.
"You could what?" she demanded.
"Even a barbarian should not dare to say what I was about to say to one whom I have known scarce half a dozen minutes."
"Whoever you may be, you show rare discrimination," came in a sarcastic tone in a man's voice directly behind von Harben.
The girl looked up in surprise and von Harben wheeled about simultaneously, for neither had been aware of the presence of another. Facing him von Harben saw a short, dark, greasy-looking young man in an elaborate tunic, his hand resting upon the hilt of the short sword that hung at his hip. There was a sarcastic sneer upon the face of the newcomer.
"Who is your barbarian friend, Favonia?" he demanded.