Miss Breugaire's invitation is returned with a polite request for a rain check. Tarantulas is in no fit state to see or be seen by anyone, at least until his ability to transform returns to him. And even then he's in low spirits, the dream and Aster's dinner both weighing on him heavily -- and as if to rub salt in his wounds, he comes out of seclusion to find that his radios have been at least partially supplanted by magical toys! It would be maddening if he weren't so eager to take one apart and see how it works.

As it stands, however, he has no idea if Deirdre will still want to talk to him at all. Best to face the problem head-on, he finally decides; if she doubts his creative acumen, he will simply have to convince her otherwise. So he writes --

Miss Breugaire,

I must thank you again for your kind invitation the other day. How deeply I regret my own inability to accept it! As I am now entirely recovered, however, I hope I might have leave to call upon you on some more fortuitous date. I suspect there yet remain many interesting things we might discuss.

Yours in friendship,
Tarantulas