“I need to go find Malcolm,” I said. “I want to walk on down and see where the parade is going to start.”

“Davie’s in architecture,” Charles William went on. “He’s my assistant this semester. We’re building a cathedral all of wood, aren’t we, Davie?” He still had his arm around him. He was holding him as he would a girl. Their bodies melted into each other. Surreal. “So you and Malcolm hit it off.” He giggled. “I tried to talk to him this morning, but all he would say is that you’re pretty.”

“What did he say?”

“I said, Don’t you think she’s gorgeous? and he said yes.”

“What else did he say?”

“Not much. He doesn’t talk much, haven’t you noticed that by now?”

“I think I’m in love with him. I mean it.” I took Charles William’s hand. I forgot Davie was there. “Do you think he likes me? Did he say he did?”

“I told you, he said you were gorgeous. And you are, isn’t she, Davie?”

“She sure is. I’ve been dying to meet you, Dee. He talks about you all the time.”

“Well, I’m going to go and find Malcolm.” I stood in the circle of the two young men. The three of us were perfectly safe at that moment, safe in each other’s good graces with the sunlight pouring down through the windows and the morning of the world all around us. “I think I’ll get a Bloody Mary,” I added. “Is that a pitcher of them over there?”

“I’ll pour you one.” Davie took the glass he had been polishing and filled it with ice and poured in vodka and Bloody Mary mix. He handed it to me.

“Thank you. I’m going to find Malcolm. Are you sure I look all right?”

“Wait a minute,” Charles William said. “Get me a comb.” I took a comb out of my pocketbook and then, as if it were the most important thing in the world, Charles William combed my bangs down across my forehead and stood back to admire his work. “Perfect,” he said. “You look absolutely beautiful.”

“She does,” Davie added. “You’re gorgeous, Dee.” I took my Bloody Mary, and, believing I was beautiful, I went back into the living room and found Malcolm and made him believe it too. We walked out onto the sidewalk and started down the hill toward the engineering school. The sidewalks were lined with young men and women in bright fall clothes. The sky was a brilliant blue. The sycamore trees golden in the clear fall air. An incorruptible mirror that cannot be contaminated by experience, Anna once wrote, meaning life. So I suppose whatever price Malcolm and I were going to have to pay for that day’s ecstasy would be the proper price. “I love you,” I said and took his arm.