'That I doubt, sir,' answered Zoë, laughing too, though not much.
'You have no experience of men,' he said. 'They are all like me, I assure you. One sheep is not more like another in a flock.'
'I should not have taken you for one of the common herd. Besides, I know of your deeds in Italy and Greece, and how you fought a Turkish army for a whole year with a handful of men——'
'I have seen some fighting, of course,' Zeno replied. 'But that is all in the past. I am a sober, peace-loving Venetian merchant now, and nothing else.'
'It must be very dull to be a sober, peace-loving Venetian merchant,' said Zoë, faintly mimicking his tone.
'Making money is too hard work to be dull.'
'I suppose so. And then,' she added, with magnificent calm, 'I have always heard that avarice is the passion of old age.'
Zeno fell into the trap.
'Dear me!' he cried in astonishment. 'How old do you think I am?'