“ ‘Indeed, I do,’ she responded with a straight face. ‘How do you think I get here?’

“I laughed but not too loudly. It seemed an absurd fantasy to espouse.

“She was distractingly beautiful now, with the light of the torchères making a soft wreath of illumination behind us. Her breasts were prominent under the soft red velvet tunic, and there was something positively unsettling about her gorgeous bare feet with her golden toenails. As I looked down at them, indeed I couldn’t stop myself from looking at them, I saw they were small feet, and that I found rather fetching. Also she wore a gold ring on her left big toe, and there seemed something deliciously evil about singling out that toe for this adornment.

“My three and one-half years of Catholic abstinence weighed heavily upon me suddenly, especially since there seemed something ‘makeable’ about her, maybe the fact that she seemed genuinely wild.

“I also found it beguiling that she was shorter than me now—no longer the six-foot devil who had borne down on me in the shower so long ago, fiercely threatening my life until Goblin had sent the shower of glass at her.

“ ‘And while we’re on the subject of Goblin,’ she said in the most agreeable tone, ‘I can tell that the demon isn’t with you. What a loss. Do you expect him to return and proffer his affections soon enough like a loyal dog, or do you think he’s gone forever?’

“ ‘You puzzle me,’ I said, ‘taking such a sweet voice to speak such a hostile thing. I don’t know whether or not I’ve lost him forever. Could be. Could be that he’s found another soul with whom he’s made a better communion. I gave him eighteen years of my life. Then distance divided us. I don’t claim anymore to understand his nature.’

“ ‘I didn’t mean to sound hostile,’ she said. ‘The truth is, and I do like to speak the truth when I can, that I never expected to find you so sanguine.’

“I didn’t know what ‘sanguine’ meant. She moved towards the table, uncorked one of the bottles and filled the ciborium.

“ ‘Three and a half years has mellowed me, somewhat,’ I said. ‘And I never expected you to invite me in tonight. On the contrary, I expected to find you jealous of your nighttime hours. I thought you’d turn me away.’

“ ‘And why would that be, do you think?’ she asked. She brought the cup to me and extended it. And only then did I see the giant sapphire carbuncle on her finger. ‘Oh yes, this,’ she said as I took the cup. ‘I carved this likeness of the god Mars. I was consecrated to him once, but it was in jest. I’ve been the victim of so many jests.’