'I would rather wear something plainer,' said Zoë; but at the mention of the captive Emperor her brown eyes had grown very dark and hard, and her voice almost trembled.
'Kokóna Arethusa must look her best this morning,' objected Rustan's wife. 'She will receive a visit.'
Zoë started a little, and instinctively drew the bed-clothes up to her chin.
'Already!' she exclaimed in a low tone.
The negress grinned from ear to ear.
'The Kokóna will perhaps not spend another night under our humble roof,' she said. 'I do not know anything certainly as yet, because the customer has not seen you,' she continued more familiarly, 'but Rustan has consulted the astrologer, who says that these are fortunate days for our buying and our selling. So I do not doubt but that the customer will be pleased with your looks, Kokóna, for indeed, though I do not wish to flatter you, we have not entertained such a beauty in our modest home for a long time!'
All this was, of course, intended to put Zoë in a good humour, in order that she might produce an agreeable impression on the expected purchaser. Rustan had once missed a very good bargain because the merchandise had burst into tears at the wrong moment.
'What sort of person is the customer?' asked the girl. 'Do you know who he is?'
She asked the question quietly, but she held her breath as she waited for the reply.
'I forget his name,' answered the negress after a moment's thought. 'He is a foreigner, a rich young merchant who lives in a fine house by the Golden Horn.'