"Find any tights?" she asked me.  You guys know how hard it is tofind really decent dancewear, & I guess my continuing search hadbegun to amuse her.  Or maybe she just wanted to put me up todoing something outrageous.  She likes to get me to do outrageousthings, which is one of the reasons I love her.  Anyway, I refusedto be flapped & said, "Nope, no Capezio's.  Not even a Danskinoutlet."

We walked a bit & suddenly Pat said, "There you are!"  We werepassing a hosiery store, & on a mannequin in the window was agorgeous pair of tights printed with all sorts of pictures thatcould have come from an illuminated manuscript, or maybe a pre-Raphaelite painter.

She said I should get them.  (She may have seen the store & thetights before catching up with me & set this up; I said she likesme to do outrageous things.)  I hesitated.  She continued teasingme, accusing me of chickening out, which I was.  Finally, I toldher, "If you make me go in there, I'm going to *embarrass* you!I'm going to say, `I know they'll go with my gold miniskirt, buthow do you think they'll look with the silver one?'"  But all shesaid was, "I'll just say, `Whatever you need for your act, Dear.'"She's a hard woman to one-up!  Later on, she teased me aboutthem again & I privately resolved that, if she raised the issueone more time, I *would* buy them.

Came the end of October, & she brought the subject up again,saying it was a pity I hadn't had the nerve to buy them, becauseI could have worn them for Hallowe'en.  This had to be just moreraillery, because we weren't going anywhere that evening.  Never-theless after my morning ballet class I hiked down to the Seaport(in pouring down rain) & got a pair.

When I got them home & tried them on, they actually fitted well,even though they were "one size," and they looked like dynamite.I covered them with a pair of trousers just before my wife gothome.  When she arrived, I dropped my pants (!) and said, "HappyHallowe'en!"  She looked, exclaimed, "Oh, you *got* them!" andburst out laughing.  I told her it was a bad policy to suggest toany man that he lacked the courage to do something.  I ended upwearing them that entire evening, because they looked and felt sogood--and because I wanted to make sure I had made my point.

It set a precedent, because ever since that day I frequently weartights around the house.  She seems to like them.  And I've wornthat "pre-Raphaelite" pair every Hallowe'en since then, althoughthey got a run last year, so that's probably the end for them.

Tom