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" 'Wouldn't you if you were me?' I asked I turned around and faced him

"I had never seen such a face of trouble on hi him and I was sorry for it

" 'I am you,' he answered "

Chapter26

26

"THE LATE AFTERNOON WAS heavenly To be that in love, to know that frenzy of the heart -- even now, young as I still a that was part of the innocence of childhood That it could coain, I don't even drea happiness is impossible

"After Mona woke, had her bath and put on her fresh Wal-Mart white pants and shirt ent down to walk around Blackwood Far is what kept me sane as I spilled out my soul to Mona I told her all about Goblin, all about Lynelle, all about e life as I perceived it

"She was an eager listener Also she was char drive lined by the pecan trees It didn't seear or overdone to her She said she saw a sy

"Yes, it was bigger andthan a Garden District house, she conceded, but she could see why Manfred Blackwood didn't want to be constrained and so he had found his perfect spot in the country

" 'Quinn,' she said, 'we live in houses that were built by people's dreams, and we have to accept that We have to revere the dreao to others after us These houses are personalities in our lives They have their roles to play ¡¯

"She looked at the big colu of the place

" 'Even the house I grew up in,' she said, 'poor as it was, it was a huge Victorian on St Charles Avenue It was chock-full of ghosts and people You know, I didn't grow up rich I was a poor kind of down-at-the-heel Mayfair when it coht down to it My parents were both spineless drunks They gave their lives to the bottle And now I'nated heiress to billions of dollars It ain talking about drean¨¦e of the Mayfair Legacy ¡¯

"She started to look a little bit sad, which alarmed me

" 'Someday I have to tell you all about our faht now I'm with you Tell me about you ¡¯

"I thought she was absolutely brilliant I had never thought much about the kind of woht that she be brilliant as well as beautiful And her beauty, it was natural She wore no lipstick or eyebrow pencil She had co I was totally captivated