RANSVESTIA

"Well, let's not get all slopped out about our mutual admiration, shall we? I don't particularly enjoy dancing — " he broke off suddenly.

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with girls?" I finished for him.

Just as the music ended he whispered in my ear, “My greatest consola- tion is that sometime in the very near future you're going to have to take back all the comments and names you've ever called m. And you're going to feel very rotten about it." He smiled, a ghastly charade, and led me off the floor.

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True to his word, the Prince came to claim a dance and Wendell re- tired to a corner of the room where he stayed for some time. I suppose but that the Prince broke every rule of good etiquette in the books rank has its privilege, they say. At any rate, he never left my side for the next hour and a half, much to the chagrin and even downright rage of most of the females present in the room. And I must admit, I honestly enjoyed it — not just the part about bugging all the girls, either. I mean I enjoyed the dancing and being with his Shortness, the Manifest of where- ever. As a matter of fact, I could have and probably would have stayed that way all night, but my feet began killing me. When you wear tieless tennis shoes all day long high-heeled slippers aren't the most comfortable thing in the world.

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We the Prince and I were in the midst of a discussion of the mer- its of Coltrane (we discovered a lot of common interests in that short period of time) when I suddenly slipped. The Prince caught me, how- ever, which was the first really close embrace I'd ever had – and just a bit scary beacuse I really enjoyed it — and led me to safety. A false safety as it turned out, because the next thing I knew, the Prince has led me out into the hotel gardens and after I took off my shoes (Blessed Feel- ing!), I discovered that I was now slightly shorter than the Prince who seemed to be getting closer and closer to me all the time.

When you were a little kid did you ever go out on a sled or a toboggan and suddenly discover that you were on the top of the biggest hill in the world? And you wanted to go down, but the edge of the slope is as ter- rifying as it is inviting, as inviting as it is terrifying. Well, gang, that's where I was: The Prince is coming closer all the time, his arms are around my shoulders and it's obvious that in just a few seconds he is going to make an attempt to kiss me and all I can think about is returning the kiss.

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