Hearts and Masks

William sniggered.

"And is there anything further?" I inquired. The comedy was beginning

to weary me, it was so one-sided.

"I am in no particular hurry," the rogue answered, his sardonic smile

returning. "It is so long since I have chatted with people of my kind."

I scowled.

"Pardon me, I meant from a social point of view only. I admit we would

not be equals in the eye of the Presbyter."

And then followed a scene that reminds me to this day of some broken,

fantastic dream, a fragment from some bewildering nightmare.