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of Victor Hugo and his love for books. Above all she loved La Légende des siècles . She heard Marcel's mother saying that the roti hadn't come out exactly how she liked, and that she hop ­ ed they liked the food. The first dish was quiche lorraine .
    "I'm sorry," said Zohra. "I don't eat pork."
    "You keep kosher?" asked Maurice.
    "Well, not exactly."
    "We don't keep kosher exactly either, sure. If we have kosher guests then we eat kosher, but it has been years since we believed in it."
    "She isn't Jewish," said Marcel.
    "What?"
    "A non-Jew that doesn't eat pork? She must be vegetaria ­ n, then?
    Zohra hesitated for a moment, and wondered if she should tell them that she was Muslim. It didn't seem like Marcel's parents were very worried that she wasn't Jewish, b ­ ut they might care if they found out she were Muslim and not Christian.
    "What is your last name?"
    "Elbaz."
    "Elbaz...I know many Jews named Elbaz. So your father must have been Jewish, and your mother not."
    "Why don't we change the subject?" said Marcel.
    "Why?" insisted his father. "What's the big secret? In this house we can eat what we want and be what we want. We're not prejud ­ iced against anyone. It’s the goyim that are prejudiced against us. My father went to a town in Sp ­ ain seventy years ago, and they had believed that Jews h ­ ad tails."
    Marcel tried again to change the topic, to speak of current events and the euro.
    "I think it is the end. When they change to the euro it will be the end of capitalism," said Marcel.
    "You are always very optimistic."
    "My theory, and I'm not an economist, is that the economy depends on the money that is under the table, the money that goes from hand to hand without anyone else coming and taking a part. When the Euro starts, the black market will disappear, and there will be a terrible recession. Also, they did a study and found that many sma ­ ll and medium-sized businesses aren't ready for the Euro and that it will break them, and in France everyone wants to break off. There will be a Nobel Prize for unemployment.
    Zohra understood that Marcel was trying to avoid any discussion about her religion or origins, as if he was ashamed. Or maybe it wasn't shame, bu ­ t that he thought that they were adults and it was better not to involve his family in his decisions.
    The roti in mus ­ hroom sauce came. She liked it.
    "I'm not vegetarian, actually," she said, smiling. "I just don't like pork." She thought that would kill the topic.
    "You know, during the Inquisition, in Spain you couldn't not eat pork. A woman who didn't like pork would be tried by a court of the Inqui ­ sition. There were many cases, they always thought they were dealing with a Jew. Now all the Jews eat pork. They can't be accused that way. They threw all the vegetarians and maybe the Muslims in jail, but in Europe even the M ­ uslims eat pork. In Europe everyone eats pork.”
    Maurice began to suspect that she was a Muslim. That went along with the Elbaz name, which is also Arabic, there had been an Egypti ­ an minister named Elbaz. He didn't know if he should mention it ­ . What would his wife think? But he w ­ as also confused, that his son might marry a goy that didn't matter, but an Arab? They are ou ­ r enemies. We didn't leave Morocco just to have this happen, he thought.
    "We are not planning on getting married," sa ­ id Zohra.
    "Who said anything about marriage?” asked Marcel.
    "I don't know. But I wanted to make that clear, because maybe your parents think that if I came to your house for dinner it is becau ­ se we want to get married, and it isn't."
    "Are you also one of those women who doesn't want kids?" asked Mercedes.
    Zohra smiled timidly, and despite the fact that it was only three and her shift started at six, she decided to use her work as pretext to leave aft ­ er lunch.
    "I have to go by the house and then head to the h ­ ospital, chéri , it was really nice to meet you two. I really enjoyed the food, and no,