Of all questions she had least expected this one, which seemed so natural to him. She waited a moment before she spoke.
'Are you dissatisfied, sir?' she asked in a low voice. 'Has the Bokharian cheated you?'
'No! What a thought!'
'Then you know what I am, and I can tell you nothing more, my lord. Can a slave have a pedigree?'
'I do not believe that you were born a slave,' said Zeno, leaning forward a little and looking into her eyes.
After a moment, her lids drooped under his gaze, but she would not speak.
'Have you nothing to say?' he asked, disappointed at her silence.
Again the temptation seized her to tell him all, since he spoke so kindly; but still she thought of what might happen to Kyría Agatha.
'I am your bought slave,' she said, almost directly. 'I have nothing else to tell.'
'But you had a mother?'