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I felt the heat rise to my cheeks, and I spun him around to face me.

"I'll tell you what I would say, Jack Clovis. I would say I love you, and all the servants in the world and all the fine clothes and cars couldn't compensate if I lost that love. I'd say that there's nothing more beautiful than a sunset when I'm in the arms of someone I love and nothing more precious than waking up in those arms, whether I'm sleeping in a trailer in the bayou or in a mansion in New Orleans.

"Being rich doesn't make falling in love impossible. I'm not sorry my parents have done well, but falling in love with someone who really is in love with you--that's really being rich, Jack. Maybe that sounds like a schoolgirl's fantasy, and maybe you're right that most people would regret losing their pleasures and comforts, but I'm not most people.

"Don't you forget I'm part Cajun, too, and my blood can be traced back to those swamps you cherish."

Jack's face broke into a wide smile. "You're not kidding about your Cajun heritage," he said. "I remember I said I didn't want to risk your wrath. That was a smart piece of advice I gave myself. I should have listened."

I softened. "Just see me for who I am and not for what my family owns," I pleaded.

"Okay. I'm sorry," he said. "That's the last time I'll make a big deal of this overgrown shack."

I laughed and hugged him. "Let's go. There's nothing like showing someone else your hometown," I told him and hurried him out and down the stairs.

I took him on a whirlwind tour. First I drove him past Loyola and Tulane. We stopped at the Audubon park and zoo, and then he said he wanted to ride a streetcar. I drove back to the house, and we walked up to the stop and took the streetcar to Canal Street. We crossed into the French Quarter and had po'boy sandwiches at a sidewalk cafe near the river where there was something of a breeze. For a while we just watched the steamboats and barges going up and down the Mississippi and listened to the street music performed by guitarists and harmonica players, and trumpeters.

"It's nicer here than I expected," Jack offered, but there was still some hesitation in his voice.

"What is it you miss the most, Jack?" I asked. We were holding hands, but he suddenly seemed hundreds of miles away.

"The stillness, I guess. Nature, the animals, even the dangerous ones. And your well," he added. "They're drilling for a different kind of oil in these streets, hawking from the storefronts, pushing their wares." He shrugged. "I guess you gotta be what you are . . . but it-really is pretty here," he added.

I thought about what he'd said and wondered if the gap between us was too wide. We lived only hours away from each other, but the way we were brought up had become part of us and had given us a different view of the sunrise and the sunset. How strong was love? Could it bridge the gap and show us how to really know each other?

We did have a wonderful day together, though. Late in the afternoon, after we visited Mommy's new exhibit, we had coffee and beignets at the Cafe du Monde. Jack smiled and said Bart was right: their baker, back in the bayou, was right up to par. His loyalty made me laugh, but it made me a little sad, too.

Before dinner we all visited Pierre again. He was more animated, and he liked Jack, especially when Jack promised to show hi

m how an oil well brought the oil up from the depths of the earth.

"Can we go up there as soon as I get out of the hospital, Pearl?" he asked me excitedly.

"Not as soon as you get out, Pierre. You have to get strong and healthy first. Then we'll go," I said flashing a look at Mommy.

"We'll all go there. I promise," she said, smiling at me, and I had the feeling she had killed all the demons that had kept her from visiting her past. We would go back often.

Jack was concerned that he didn't have the proper clothing for the restaurant Daddy had chosen. He mumbled about it, but Daddy overheard and told him not to worry. He considered him, nodded, and suggested Jack try one of his older sport jackets.

"I bought this a while ago, when I had a trimmer figure," he explained. The jacket fit Jack well. Daddy loaned him a tie, too. Jack was reluctant to take the clothing, but did so at Daddy's insistence.

Our dinner was spectacular. Daddy went overboard to impress Jack and to celebrate. After our rich desserts, Jack leaned over and whispered, "I bet the bill for this dinner is as much as I make a week." He laughed, but once again I felt the gap between us.

Mommy and Daddy drank a little too much wine. They were both giddy and pleasantly tired by the time we arrived home. Jack and I went out to the patio and pool, and they went upstairs to fall asleep in each other's arms.

It was a particularly starry night, no moon but a myriad of twinkling lights.

"Most of those stars are bigger than our own sun. But when you're far away, bigger things look small. Then, when you get closer, you see how small you are," he said. I knew what he was saying.

"No matter how far away I am from you, Jack, you will never seem small to me."

He laughed. "I only went to high school. My daddy taught me all I had to know about being an oil rigger. The fanciest party I've been to is a wedding, and I bet the whole affair didn't cost as much as tonight's dinner in that restaurant. And you're going to be a doctor."

"Don't make me regret it," I replied quickly.

"Why would I do that? I think it's terrific. You know what you are," he said, suddenly turning to me. He gazed up at the stars and then at me. "You were named Pearl, but you're really a diamond--a diamond in the rough. They're going to polish you and make you dazzle just like those stars."

Before I could speak, he raised my hand to his lips and then he leaned over to kiss me.