"Well, she's a little different. I'm not saying that's good or bad, it's just different. This type of life obviously means different things to different individuals."

"I agree,” I said, refilling our glasses. "This is a good wine. Where do you get it?"

"I buy it in Zurich, oddly enough. You can only buy wine in Morocco in special shops for foreigners that are ill stocked. It's Islamic law. I love this vintage, but I have to be careful with it around my wife. She is very devout. She won't even sit in the same room with me if I drink. It's barely tolerated in the house."

"You two seem an odd couple," I said laughing. "How did you meet?"

"I was living in Rome at the time, that's a great place to be in the art business. She was touring with the London Philharmonic. I went to the symphonic hall with some Japanese clients in hopes of closing a six-piece deal. I saw her on stage in the string section and was captivated immediately. I arranged to be introduced to her at the reception afterward. She was cool at first, then went cold when she realized I knew nothing about music. But by the end of the night, I had gotten her to agree to a tour of some of the city’s most exclusive galleries the next day."

"And you swept her off her feet with your art knowledge and charm. Something like that?" I asked smiling.

He laughed. "It was nothing like that my friend. Her contemporary art knowledge was almost as complete as my own. She was as cool and collected as a judge at the end of the day. That's when I knew I had to have her, whatever the cost in money, time and emotion. I was already in love with her. In that sense, you could say she swept me off my feet.

"I found a touring schedule for the London Philharmonic and took in two shows in Florence the next week. I went only to see her play, watching from the anonymity of the crowd. I could hear her notes above everyone else's. It felt like she was playing for me alone with all the others as mere accompaniment. I had gone to Florence to see if she still stirred me and I found myself saying yes to the same question in Trieste, in Belgrade, and in Athens.

"I met her backstage for the second time after a performance in Cairo. We spoke for about an hour and agreed to establish a correspondence. Five years, two dozen meetings and one hundred and one letters later she was my wife. I had offered, as a grandiose measure, to marry her in the Grand Mosque of Cordova, and she held me to it. It cost me a fortune and about a dozen political favors to pull it off. But it was worth every peseta."