"If it weren't for me inviting Meena Harper over for dinner that night, the two of you would never have met, and this whole horrible mess would never have happened..." She paused dramatically, as if waiting for someone to jump in and say, "But," Mary Lou went on, a little less self-confidently, "if I hadnt then you, Lucien, would just have gone on through eternity never knowing what true love is. And then how would you have felt?" "Considerably better than I've felt over the course of the past six months, I imagine," he replied."