ONCE upon a time, nearly six hundred years ago—about the year 1344 to be more explicit—His Gracious Majesty, King Edward III, guest of honor at the grand annual ball of the Larry L. Plantagenet Association, paused while dancing with the beautiful Countess of Salisbury, and, stooping, picked up from the floor
—a lady’s garter! It was a ribbon of dark blue, edged with yellow—a slender, shapely thing with buckle and pendant cunningly wrought of gold.