"When I saw you in that dress, I didn't even recognize you," he said. "I thought it was some other girl, and I got scared, because I didn't know what had gone wrong. You were so beautiful!"

"Was I really?" she asked, hardly believing that he could have seen her that way.

"Really! They told me the dress would make a difference, but 'Lectra, it made so much more than I knew! Then you came closer, and I saw a freckle under your veil, and I knew it was you—"

And that was the end of the illusion, she thought.

"And you were still so lovely I could hardly stand it," he said. "All this time I've been betrothed to you, and I never realized how beautiful you could be!"

Electra was elated. "You mean that's why you were in a trance? Because of me?"

"Yes. I never truly saw you before, 'Lectra. I was such a fool! Not until that dress—"

"And then I took off the dress," she said with resignation.

"And I saw your panties. And your—your—I don't know the word."

"Bra?"

"I guess. I never saw that before. I didn't even know it existed. And you were still so beautiful, and I knew it wasn't just the dress."

"Pink panties are special," she agreed. One thing she knew: having discovered their magic, she was not about to take them off! She wanted him to go right on thinking she was beautiful, even if it was only the magic of the panties and bra. Nada might not need such magic to be beautiful, but Electra did.

"Then you kissed me, and—"

"Oh, Dolph, it's kind of you to say you liked it!" she said, bursting with appreciation.

"To think I could have been kissing you all this time, instead of trying to kiss Nada when she didn't want to be," he said. "You would have kissed me anytime, but I—"

"You can catch up now," she suggested.

"Yes!" He kissed her again, and then she kissed him, and then he kissed her. Electra's fondest dream was coming true. "Oh, 'Lectra, I just didn't know!"

But after a time they were sated even with that, and just lay beside each other staring at the ceiling. Electra realized that there must be special magic associated with the entire wedding ceremony to make him love her for the moment, and she hated to break the enchantment. But there was business that had to be accomplished. "You know we have to consummate this marriage," she said, finally.

"I'd rather just look at you, and hug you, and kiss you," he said.

"That, too. But still we have to signal the stork."

"But how do we do it?" he asked plaintively. "I never found out."