“I, Dandelion, shall make you eat those words,” he said and drained his tankard.

“I should like that,” the man said, “but I don’t believe I shall. The Garden has but one entrance.”

“Honey, tell him how wrong he is!”

Honey’s face was buried in the stomach of Eunuch Mahmoud and he patted her paternally.

“Still as the grave,” the man said.

Dandy placed his finger on the man’s lips. “Wrong wrong wrong. A hungry bunny like you could get into the Garden and eat whatever he liked.” He walked his fingers up the man’s face. “There are ivy vines and ladders and one woman with enormous … heart lets down her hair and lets up a lover or two on a lazy night.”

“The ivy is brittle. The ladder was broken. The woman’s heart is cold. Each I’ve tried.”

“There is another way. I shall prove it! Honey … "

“Honey is safe with Mahmoud. The worst he will do is take her shopping.”

Dandy and the man staggered into the street, arm in arm. Honey rolled off Mahmoud, kissed him on the cheek and stalked the pair.