“ ‘I can’t imagine why,’ I said. I looked at the wine. ‘Am I to drink alone?’

“She laughed softly. ‘For the moment,’ she said. ‘Please go ahead. You’ll make me unhappy if you don’t.’

“My breeding was such that I couldn’t refuse the drink on that account, and so I drank, noticing a strange flavoring in the wine, though it wasn’t unpleasant. I drank deeply again. I was excited.

“ ‘You really mean what you say, don’t you?’ she asked. ‘You don’t see why people laugh at me. Or ever have, do you?’

“ ‘No,’ I said. In my typical fashion I drank even more of the wine, loving the taste of it suddenly and letting it hit my hungry heart immediately. Nothing for lunch. Nothing for supper. Awake on the plane. Awake round the clock. I had to watch myself.

“ ‘They laughed and they still laugh,’ she said, ‘because I’m both man and woman. But you see nothing to jest at there, do you?’

“ ‘I told you no. I think you’re rather magnificent. I thought you were before. My, but this wine is strong! Is it wine?’ I realized that the bottles carried no labels. I felt the floor moving beneath me. ‘Would you mind if I sat down?’ I asked. I looked about me for a chair.

“ ‘No, you must,’ she said. She drew up one of the swan-back chairs for me. It was a graceful thing, like the chairs on Grecian urns. I remembered having ordered it. And Allen had teased me over the phone about all the swans in my house of marble and gold.

“ ‘Yes, your workmen laugh at your taste,’ she said, reading my thoughts, ‘but your taste is excellent, have no doubt.’

“ ‘Oh, I don’t have any doubts,’ I said, more sure of myself now that I was seated. I laid the cup on the edge of the desk. My hand rested beside it. I think I had almost dropped it.

“ ‘Drink some more,’ she said. ‘It’s a special brew. You might say I blended it myself.’

“ ‘Oh, I can’t,’ I said. I looked up into her eyes. What powerful eyes. People with big eyes have such a gift. And hers were so enormous. So white and black.

“She sat on the desk looking down at me. She smiled reassuringly. ‘It seems I don’t know quite what to do with you when you’re so polite,’ she said. ‘You made an annoying enemy once, and now I want you to love me. Perhaps when all is said and done, you will.’

“ ‘That’s entirely possible,’ I said, ‘but there’re so many species of love, aren’t there? I’m religious still, and something tells me you live freely.’