"Sure. Short for Aphrodite, goddess of love. You like? Please, where my brother and pussycat now?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," Phil said sadly.
She shrugged as if she expected to hear just that. "Is nothing new. We are crazy people, always get lost each other."
"Then you do come from Argentina?" Phil asked doubtfully. Her accent didn't sound Spanish, but his acquaintance with Spanish accents was limited.
"Sure," she confirmed carelessly, her thoughts apparently elsewhere. "Far, far country."
"Tell me, Miss da Silva," he went on, "does your cat have peculiar powers over people?"
She frowned at him. "Peculiar powers?" she repeated slowly as if testing each syllable. "Don understand."
"I mean," Phil explained patiently, "can he make people happy around him?"
The frown smoothed. "Sure. Nice little pussycat, make people happy. You like animals, Phil?"
Once again he couldn't keep his gaze from flickering to her legs, but on the whole he was feeling remarkably bucked up.