She at once took another mouthful, and went on eating.
'No,' answered Zeno, watching her. 'I did not mean that.'
She raised her beautiful eyebrows, just as he had raised his a few minutes earlier, but she said nothing and seemed very busy with the fish. Carlo took another piece, swallowed some of it deliberately, and drank a little before he leaned back in his chair and spoke again.
'Something has happened,' he said at last with great conviction.
'Really?' Zoë pretended surprised interest. 'What?' she asked with affected eagerness.
'You understand me perfectly,' he replied with a shade of sternness, for he was growing tired of her mood.
She glanced at him sideways, as a woman does when she hears a man's tone change suddenly, and she is not sure what he may do or say next.
'You do not make it easy to understand you, my lord,' she said after an instant's hesitation.
'The matter is simple enough. I find you in a bad humour----'
'Oh no! I assure you!' Zoë broke in, with a woman's diabolical facility in interrupting a man just at the right moment for her own advantage. 'I was never in a better temper in my life!'
To prove this, she took a bird and some salad, and smiled sweetly at her plate, leaving him to prove his assertion, but he did not fall into the trap.
'Then you are not easy to live with,' he observed bluntly. 'I am glad it is over.'
'Do take some of this salad!' suggested Zoë. 'It is really delicious!'
'To-morrow,' Zeno said, without paying any attention to her recommendation, 'I shall have a few guests at dinner.'
'I should advise you to give them a salad exactly like this,' answered Zoë. 'It could not be better!'
'I am glad you like it. I leave the fare to Omobono. It is about another matter that I have to speak.'
'You need not!' Zoë laughed carelessly. 'I know what you are going to say. Shall I save you the trouble?'
'I do not see how you can guess what it is----'
'Oh, easily! You do not wish your friends to see me and you are going to order me not to look out of the window when they come. Is that it?'
'Yes--more or less----' Zeno was surprised.
'Yes, that is it,' laughed Zoë. 'But it is quite useless, sir. I shall most certainly look out of the window, unless you lock me up in another room; and as for your doing that, I will yield only to force!'