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��And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.� THUS SAYETH the Lord!� Nanny sets the last plate down in front of Allen with perfectly timed emphasis and a glare that made me try and recount any major sins from the past week. I held my eggs in mid air realizing I had forgotten to say grace and put them slowly back down. This is my first attempt at eating a meal since disembarking the ship two days ago and I�m not about to take any chances. If a little prayer is my only link to actually keeping any food down then so be it. Allen puts on his contrite face but when Nanny isn�t looking he switches to his thoroughly-pleased-with-himself smile and continues to over zealously eat everything in sight just to annoy me. He had snuck out of the hotel room the night before to meet with some Parisian street artist ten years his senior in the hotel caf�. Allen�s dalliances with our neighborhood girls is one thing but this was something else entirely and Nanny actually went downstairs in her dressing gown and interrupted them mid-Gauloise. As usual she said nothing to her employer about it but Mother will see the bruise on his ear later and know instantly that he has been up to no good.
�Good news gentlemen!� Meisinger announces as he comes into the suite drawing room where we are breakfasting. He sits at our table and Nanny automatically puts a plate down in front of him then gives him a withering stare as he pulls out one of his ever-present candela cigars. He quickly thinks the better of it and puts it away again.
�Your mother opens her season in Massenet�s Thais next week. Guess who will be playing the Meditation violin solo right in the Paris Opera�s pit?� The ensuing stunned silence urges him to continue. �You can thank me later Allen.� He says as he begins to eat the eggs and toast in front of him.
�The papers will be here in an hour to do a whole mother/son story.� He says between mouthfuls. �There�s already a press release on the radio. They�re practically rioting for the standing room tickets as we speak.� I�m overjoyed at the idea of my brother finally getting an opportunity in the spotlight all his own.
Allen turns the same pale green as Meisinger�s cigar right before our eyes and looks as though he were about to plunge his butter knife into Meisinger�s heart. Had the news come at dinnertime and had it been a steak knife in his hand�
I take Allen�s hand. �Allen this is amazing! Aren�t you excite��
�How could you do something like this without asking me?� Allen says in a tone of voice so controlled in its anger it frightens me.
�Allen� I�m sorry. I� I thought you knew. It was your mother�s idea��
