He gave her another delightful demonstration a moment later as they returned to the kitchen.

"And now, eef Madame would care to be seated," he declared in a horrible stage French accent, "zis establishment will provide eggs by Luke of ze Ritz."

"You remembered how I like them?" she exclaimed, astonished.

"Of course. I created this especially for you. Don't you remember?"

It was a brilliantly simple invention consisting of poached eggs and avocado, with a sauce Pippa had never been able to analyze. It was her first taste of it for nearly eleven years, and it was delicious.

"Just for me," she echoed.

"I have to admit that I put it in the restaurants-"

"So I should jolly well hope! Is it a success?"

"The greatest. But it was always really for you."

She looked into his smiling eyes and thought, I'm so glad that I'm not in love with you anymore. If I were, you could still devastate me. Lucky for me I'm wiser now.

He made fresh coffee, and drank some with her, watching her fondly like a recovered treasure.

"What happened to Luke of the Ritz," she asked smiling, "after he got back home?"

"Oh, he drifted around from one job to another."

"Don't tell me he had trouble finding work? Not the genius I remember?"

"Work of a sort, but not the sort I wanted. Always having to scale my ideas down to someone else's guidelines, never allowed to do things my way.

"I used to pour out my frustrations to an old fellow I met on the beach. His name was Tommy, and he had a dog, called Catch, the fattest spaniel you ever saw. I guess I just naturally gravitate to beach bums, being half one myself-my mom would tell you that-but Tommy and Catch became my best friends for a while.

"I used to take them both back to my rooms, practice recipes on them, and we'd talk for hours. I visited him once at his home. He had a little place, but he didn't spend much time there because it was too far from the beach. If you've finished eating, let's go into the other room. It's more comfortable."