Like a teenaged girl, I scrambled down the narrow wrought iron stairway which rattled so loudly that the astonished fireflies swooped up out of the bushes and then, as though mesmerized by the glitter of my dress, hovered overhead, twinkling seductively. Startled by this sudden gust of brilliance, I caught a heel in the grate of the bottom step and, with a swish of sequins, fell into—and through—Gifford's waiting arms.