It didn't feel or smell like urine... then what...? I didn't have time to ponder the conundrum so I quickly cleaned the patch and wiped myself with m... cloth, reasoning that clean water would soon dry and there would be no aroma. I stepped back into them and pulled them up then returned to my bed chamber where Melissa helped me to change into a deep blue velvet dress which fastened at the back then, very quickly, gave my hair a brush. "Do I look presentable Melissa?" I asked. "Oh yes, Miss. And certainly none which could be implemented to help Maria Cristina.That said, there WAS a way, one which had been abandoned in the West, that of patronage. Progressives, in their insistence on government solutions to every problem, had created a situation where patronage was viewed as not only bad, but downright evil. But in the end, it was only a question of to whom the debt was owed - a person or a government - and what kind of debt it was. Anyone who knew me knew I would much rather be. The situation was essentially normal when he walked into the house. The TV was blaring, and Henry was watching the afternoon cartoons that were really too violent for him, but what could you do about it? Tiffany was sitting at the kitchen table, working on her homework. Math, it looked like.And that was as good an illustration as any about why Mike didn't worry too much about having Tiffany come home from school, and watch Henry. There was no telling her to do her homework; she'd have it done.. Often he seemed distracted and tonight she had walked into the bathroom and found him staring at himself, a strange look on his face. Half her husband’s age she had met him at a Conference in the Midlands where she lived. They had had a whirlwind romance and married only three months after meeting. That was two years ago. She had been swept off her feet by him, impressed by his charm and attention, putting aside the worries that this was his third marriage, that he was so much older than her,.