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was Lillian who met him at the doors. She was wearing her jacket and gloves, her hat tied beneath her chin in a shredded velvet bow.
    He frowned and glanced back up at the window. "Weren't you just upstairs?"
    She nodded.
    He looked down the front steps. There were eight of them. He knew the main staircase had to have at least forty steps. How in God's name had she managed to meet him at the front door?
    She was flushed and perhaps a little out of breath.
    He shook his head, then gestured to her clothing. "Going somewhere?"
    "Yes. We both are."
    "I see. Why?"
    "You said I'm supposed to prove my theory. Well, I'm ready."
    "For what, exactly?"
    "Your entertainment."
    He gave a her long, pointed look.
    She stared back at him from eyes that were a little too red.
    "Have you been crying again?"
    She looked down. "I had something in my eye."
    "Both of them?"
    She raised her chin, a sign of defiance. "Yes."
    He crossed his arms with equal stubbornness.
    Unfazed, she held out an old cloth valise. "Here."
    "What's this?"
    "It's a surprise."
    He took the valise.
    She stood there, silently waiting.
    He stood there, silently amused.
    It began to snow again, and she looked up at the sky. "Come," she said finally, and she threaded her arm through his, all but dragging him down the steps. They reached bottom just as his brougham disappeared around the corner and down the drive to the carriage house.
    "Wait here. I'll call for the carriage."
    "Oh, no." She tugged on his arm. "We'll walk."
    "It's snowing."
    She smiled up at him. "I know. That's the best part. Now come along."
    A few minutes later he was walking down the sidewalk, valise in one hand, her arm holding his, while she chattered about the snow and the scenery and the sleighs that passed them by. She hummed a Christmas tune and smiled at people, wishing perfect strangers "Happy Christmas."
    She grasped his hand and pulled him across the street to the park. Singing about bells and angels, she led him down a snowy path to a clearing, where a pond had frozen and the surrounding trees and bushes were heavy with white snow.
    She plopped down on a park bench up a hill across from the pond and patted the spot next to her. "Sit here."
    He bent down and dusted off the snow, then sat. "Is sitting on a snowy park bench your idea of entertainment?"
    "Of course not." She took the valise from him and set it on her lap, snapped it open, and burrowed inside. A second later she looked up, grinning. She pulled out an old pair of ice skates and dangled them in front of his face. "Yours," she said, then dropped them in his lap.
    He stared at them.
    She pulled out another pair. "And mine."
    "This is the surprise?"
    She nodded. "And it's absolutely free."
    "Where did the skates come from?"
    "I borrowed them. For free," she said smugly. "Now go ahead. Strap them on." She bent down and fit her feet into the skate clamps, then buckled the leather straps. She lifted one foot, examining the skate as if it were a glass slipper. "Not bad."
    She stood up and planted her hands on her hips. "You haven't put them on yet. I thought you said you liked challenges."
    He bent down and strapped on the skates.
    An instant later she was walking down the path to the pond. He glanced up. She sauntered away like a conquering queen. From the way she carried herself, one would never know she still had a large rip in her skirt and that the rear shoulder of her jacket was shredded from the accident.
    Funniest thing. For the first time in too many years to count, he wasn't bored.
    "Better hurry," she called out over her shoulder in a singsong voice. "The last one there has to give a thousand dollars to the poor!"
    And for the third time that day, he smiled.
     
    "What do mean, we have to pay a dime?" Lilli stared dumbfounded at a park official in a blue uniform coat. He stood inside a small toll booth that had been hidden by the trees and bushes.
    The man leaned forward from the window in his booth. "The skating pond has a ten-cent