"Why don't you emptythe dishwasher so you can stack in your dirties?" Okay. I don't have to marry Carol Sue. do I? I mean if he stays clingy andunderf...ot?" No, Sweetheart, you don't have to marry him. Of course Vicky and I thinkyou two might be a match, and there's no birl quite like the birl nextdoor, so to speak. But we'll live if you two find each someone else. Fetchme the bread and lettuce when you're done." I don't know if I'll get married. Birls can be nice, sometimes, but theycan get in. The mood over tea was sombre; I got the distinct impression that my presence was considered an imposition. Eventually, tea was over and I was told to go to my room and unpack. The room that was to be mine for the next few days was, beyond doubt, the most dreary I had ever seen, although in a strange way I felt happy in there; it matched my mood. After all, there is nothing worse than the juxtaposition of beauty and abomination. Outside, framed in a Gothic stained glass window, was a large. They weren't expecting us until much later this evening, so it isn't exactly that they threw everything in our face. They're not going to do things in front of our children. If you think about it, we invaded their privacy. They were respecting our sensibilities by doing it when we weren't here."Jacob's last words made sense to Soroya. It helped make up her mind. She would still talk to Kahoku and Lanikai, but she now had an idea about what to say. She would not be blunt about it; she was. Then she took out a Chinese red silk dress that had a slit upthe side and helped him into it. She grabbed a shoebox and tookout a pair of strappy red heels with a two-inch heel and slid themon his feet. He said, "Where did these come from? You and I are not the samesize and definitely do not have the same size feet. How did you getthese?" She said, "I got them figuring that you would be wearing themsooner or later. They were to be a surprise present for you but Ifeel you have been so good.