u don't want people coming in, Wally, you should restrict your
mindwarden a little. It's set to admit anybody who does not approach the
door with vigorous intent to commit grave physical harm. When the thing
radiates 'Come in and relax' is a girl supposed to stand outside
twiggling on the doorbell?"

I dropped the subject thinking that maybe I shouldn't have brought it up
in the first place. It's one that can't be answered by logic, whereas a
firm emotional statement of like or dislike stops all counter-argument
and I'd made the mistake of questioning my own judgment.

So I eyed her and said, "Tomboy, you did not come here to indulge in
small talk."

"No," she admitted. "I'm here to keep track of you, Wally."

"Oh?"

"Our great and good friend wants me to make notes on how clever you are
at arranging things."

"You mean Barcelona sent you."

"That's about it."

I looked at her askance. "And how long are you going to stay?"

She smiled. "Until Flying Heels, Moonbeam, and Lady Grace come across
the finish line One, Two, and Three at Churchill Downs on Derby Day."

I grinned at her. "Considering that trio of turtles, Tomboy, it may be
for years and it may be forever."

She held up her glass in a sort of a toast. "Or," she said, "'Til death
do us part!"

A little bitterly I said, "One might think that Barcelona doesn't trust
me."

She replied, "It isn't a matter of trust. Barcelona holds you among his
very closest friends. He is well aware of the fact that you would do
anything for him, that you prize his friendship so highly yourself that
you would go to the most desperate lengths to keep it firm and true. Yet
he realizes that the simple desire he has recently expressed does place
you in a delicate mental attitude. You are likely to feel that he
shouldn't have expressed this desire since you feel obligated to fulfill
it. He feels that maybe this obligation to maintain friendship at all
costs may cause resentment. Since Barcelona does not want you to resent
him, he sent me to be your companion in the hope that I might get some
forewarning should your friendship for him begin to weaken."

* * * * *

Just why in this day and age she didn't just come out and say--or
think--flatly that she was there to keep me in line, I don't know. But
there she was, talking all around the main point and delivering the
information by long-winded inference.

Even so, without her Pittsburgh sto