No; the still-proud Princess was not pleased. Not at all! Neither the far-off clamour of the playing fields nor the chill gloom of the crypt impressed her, and it was all because he wasn’t there. Intellectually, she realized that Ronnie, the seductive one person left who could help her, had a full life in which he was on a collision course with the High Council itself, and he could not be expected to hold any consideration for the pleasure of one eternal girl. Intellectually, she knew this. And yet…
   Truly, it had been a most barbarian day when her horoscope had brought him to her attention.
   Only in this moment of extremity could it have happened that a flurry of activity shattered her composure into a million dangerous, uncivilized, byzantine pieces! She whirled around. Surely it could not be — but it was! At the door, the inexplicable, savage and masculine face she had come to know so well! “Kiss me,” he blurted while the band began to play. “I need you, you who make my life complete!”
   At that moment as the horror of these last months vanished in a blaze of joy, she knew that life without him was unthinkable, if not green and pleasant. Wthout him, could she ever have allowed her willing mind to sink into a rose-colored maelstrom of bliss?