"Child," said the stranger, "why did you tell your brother to go? Are you not afraid of me?"
"He is not my brother, but my cousin, and I am not at all afraid," she said.
"But you were afraid at first," he said. "You thought I was a brigand."
"That was before I had seen your face," said the little girl. "And now that I have seen you and heard you talk, I know that you are not."
"How do you know?" he asked.
"You are a good man, because you keep the Lenten fast, you speak well of God and you are kind to a little girl. So I know you have a white heart. You may perhaps be a brigand, but you are a good one."
He threw back his head and laughed aloud.
"You are a strange little one," he said. "Tell me your name."
"I am Zoe Averoff, of Argolis."