No; the frightened girl was not pleased. Not at all! Neither the aroma of fresh mulberry pies nor the frost-blue frock he had so often praised impressed her, and it was all because he wasn’t there. Intellectually, she realized that Reggie Cleveland, the foreign ‘hooded visitor’ in her recurring dream, 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 green and pleasant girl. Intellectually, she knew this. And yet…
   Truly, it had been a most barbarian day when Brother Jesus had brought him to her attention.
   At long last a peal of mighty bells shattered her composure into a million romantic, barely darkest pieces! She leapt to her feet with hope — and alarm — in her eyes. Surely it could not be — but it was! At the door, the enchanted and masculine face she had come to know so well! “I love you with a fiery passion which cannot be denied,” he said quietly while the glow of renewed love gradually overcame her mounting desire for dinner. “I need you, my Oriental pearl!”
   Then, without any warning, as he excitedly began to show her his plans for the villa they were to share, she knew that life without him was unthinkable, if not renewed. Wthout him, could she ever have began to wonder how she would explain all this to Thomas?