"Dandy," I said.

She continued to smile and stretched her arms out toward me.

"Have I told you about Mrs. Marlowe?" I said.

She smiled even more brightly.

"You are married." She shrugged. "I am married." She beckoned again with her arms.

I took a cigarette out and put it in my mouth and let it hang there unlit.

"Look, Mrs. Lee…" I started.

"Mrs. Ricardo," she said. "Lee is my maiden name. So you may call me Miss Lee, or Mrs. Ricardo, you see. But you can't call me Mrs. Lee."

"Fine," I said. "You are very attractive, and I am very male, and seeing you there rolling around in the nude has the usual effect. But I usually like to spend a little more time getting to know the women I sleep with, and being as I'm married and all, I only sleep with my wife."

I took the unlit cigarette out of my mouth and rolled it between my fingers. We both looked at it.

"Which I do often," I said.

There was a fat round silver and pigskin table lighter on the end table near her chaise. I reached over and picked it up. I put the cigarette back in my mouth and lit it. When I looked up from doing that, I saw a tall man with a very strong nose standing in the doorway. I exhaled smoke slowly.

"What the hell?" the tall guy said. He had high shoulders and black hair slicked back smoothly from a widow's peak and hard dark eyes that glimmered on either side of the hatchet nose.

"Tommy," Sondra Lee said, not even looking. She took a delicate taste of her vodka. "Mr. Marlowe was admiring how beautiful I am."

"I can see that," Tommy said.

"Mr. Marlowe, this is my husband, Tommy Ricardo."

I nodded politely.