"Would you mind if I sat down for some of that lemonade?" came a voice behind him.
He turned his head to see her again, walking around to the other side of the table, this time wearing a medium blue dress with a perfectly fitting light blue trench coat around it. Her hair was adorably bundled behind her head, and her eyes had the most confusingly evident glow of friendship that he had yearned for on the previous two occasions.

"I'm sorry if I caught you at an uncomfortable moment."

"Why would it be uncomfortable?  I fell in love with an intangible quality on Monday, which I wrongly imagined you to possess. If that wasn't bad enough, you had the police hound me for trying to improve things on Wednesday."
"I could hound them back for you if you like. I'm a part time journalist, and since you are performing at our house tomorrow, I thought that it would be marvellous to meet you and request a brief interview, especially if you fell in love with my Monday column photograph."

"You weren't a photograph in the park on Wednesday."
"I work on Wednesdays and Fridays. I don't have time for parks. It must have been Hanya. She looks just like me, and you have been the badly treated victim of confusion."
"So it was she who didn't like me on Monday either. I knew somehow that you could be as sweet as this when I saw Hanya on Monday."
"That must have been Irma. Hanya and I were both out on Monday."
"Do you mean that you are triplets?"
"You couldn't have known, but I wish I'd known what you must have been going through if they didn't like you."
"I feel so foolish, a illusionist taken unawares by the simplest illusion of nature."
"I would say that you are exciting. I am Carrie. You are an inspiration, to believe in me before you knew that I existed. You will promise to propose to me? I'll do anything for a handsome fiancé."
"When?"
"By the end of the week. I'll interview you tomorrow morning. We could have a picnic lunch on Sunday. There is still time to look for rings today."
"It all seems to be happening so fast and easily now. Don't people usually have problems?"

"I wouldn't want us to be usual, Robert. Please let's just be us. That is the way that it should be."
"When will you come?"
"Eleven. Don't worry about Irma and Hanya. They will get used to you."

*          *          *          *

The Saturday evening performance came to a conclusion, and the children were shown out to their parents' cars by the Van Horners.

Irma and Hanya were curiously unconcerned by the presence of Robert, now that he was an established sweetheart of their sister.

"Carrie, I would love to take you on a picnic tomorrow, but could we also walk through the garden tonight with the pathway lights on? It would be so romantic."
"Of course."

*          *          *          *

"I thought that you might look forward to the picnic even more if I did a little magic tonight."'

"Yes do."

"I'll need help with this trick. Check that my hands are free of anything."
She faced him, taking his hands in her own, separating his fingers with hers, and said "They're empty. Now about that magic trick."
"I'd say it's coming if you keep smiling. Yes it's on the tip of your tongue. You had better open your mouth" he said seeing a sudden look of surprise in her eyes. He kissed her. Then the startled girl opened her mouth to discover that there really was something on top of her tongue.

"Well what have we here Carrie? Put out your tongue."
He removed from her outstretched tongue a small object, and she then withdrew her tongue and saw that he held an engagement ring.
"It's beautiful. You really found one."
"Will you be engaged to me for a long and happy courtship followed by a magical marriage?"
"I will."
"Will you kiss me?"

"But the ring?"
"But the kiss."

"Alright...mm....that's lovely the way you rest your palms gently against my cheeks while you kiss me."
"Palming is a habit I just cannot seem to break. Don't yours feel any different?"
"The ring. You slipped it on my finger."
"Yes."
"You wouldn't try to palm it back?"

"You'll be Carrie Sinclair one day."
"I'll be carried away."
"Mmm."

"Mmm."

*          *          *          *

One day Robert was performing again at a Van Horner party when Mrs Van Horner's friend Louise Waters was a guest. After the party Robert and Carrie went out to kiss on the lawn.

"I really wonder what she sees in him" said Mrs Van Horner.

"So do I" said Hanya, "and it's ruined my friendship with my sister, who knows that I can't stand him."

Louise took Hanya aside and said:

"Could you pretend to be her for long enough to fool him?"

"Why would I want to?"
"Because I could help you to shrink him. If he thought that you were Carrie, he'd walk straight into your trap when you get him alone with my shrinking ring I’ll lend you. Then you could gobble him whole, and he'd think it was Carrie eating him. You'd be rid of him and take the smug confidence out of him as well, if that's what's bothering you."
"Shrinking ring! You're kidding!"

However, Louise soon had Hanya convinced, and they made their plans and arranged for Robert to have the shock of his life.