He reddened and started as if stung. She saw the hurt instantly, and with a
gush of remorse begged for forgiveness.

"No. I didn't mean it. It was horrid of me. It is not in your nature to
think such a thing. Forgive me."

Frankly, impulsively, she stretched her hand across the table. He touched
it timidly with his ineffectual fingers, not knowing what to do with it,
vaguely wondering whether he should raise it to his lips, and so kept
touching it, until she pressed his fingers in a little grip of
friendliness, and withdrew it with a laugh.

"Do you know, I still have that money," he said, pulling a handful of great
five-louis pieces from his pocket. "I can't spend it. I've tried to. I
bought a dog yesterday but he wanted to bite me and I had to give him to
the hotel porter. All this gold makes such a bulge in my pocket."

When Zora explained that the coins were only used as counters and could be
changed for notes at the rooms, he was astonished at her sapience. He had
never thought of it. Thus Zora regained her sense of superiority.

This lunch was the first of many meals they had together; and meals led to
drives and excursions, and to evenings at the theater. If she desired still
further to convince the wretch with the evil eyes of her befriended state,
she succeeded; but the wretch and his friends speculated evilly on the
relations between her and Septimus Dix. They credited her with pots of
money. Zora, however, walked serene, unconscious of slander, enjoying
herself prodigiously. Secure in her scorn and hatred of men she saw no harm
in her actions. Nor was there any, from the point of view of her young