Her description was accurate, was almost eloquent.
Did that wonderful service of gold plate ever exist outside of her diseased imagination?
Was Maria actually remembering some reality of a childhood of barbaric luxury?
Were her parents at one time possessed of an incalculable fortune derived from some Central American coffee plantation, a fortune long since confiscated by armies of insurrectionists, or squandered in the support of revolutionary governments?
It was not impossible.

Of Maria Macapa's past prior to the time of her appearance at the "flat" absolutely nothing could be learned.

She suddenly appeared from the unknown, a strange woman of a mixed race, sane on all subjects but that of the famous service of gold plate; but unusual, complex, mysterious, even at her best.
But what misery Zerkow endured as he listened to her tale! For he chose to believe it, forced himself to believe it, lashed and harassed by a pitiless greed that checked at no tale of treasure, however preposterous.

The story ravished him with delight.

He was near someone who had possessed this wealth.