We Were Dancing1942

Nicholas Eugen August Wolfgang 'Nikki' Prax, aka Mr. Manescu:
Your honor, Counsel for the plaintiff has told you that I'm a pretty worthless sort of fellow. He's pictured me as an idler - living in luxury in the houses of the rich. Your honor, the kings have all had their fools - unhappy slaves whose business it was to make the king merry. I was the fool of modern millionaires. I took pride in my profession. I worked hard at it. I came off smiling in the face of debts, dull patrons and hangovers. I was always gay. It was the obligation of my calling. If I'd a never met the plaintiff, I might have gone my way and found it good enough. But, she came into my life and filled it - with laughter, little foreign songs and temper and other things with which I needn't detain, your honor. She was wearing a white gown and blowing a curl off her forehead. She looked so foolish, your honor - and so adorable. Whatever else my faults may be, this much is true, from that moment, I loved her. She may put me out of her life and leave me alone and bewildered, but I shall persist in loving her. Her and only her always - with every breathe I draw, with every beat of my heart. There's never been another woman like her. There never will be, no matter how long I might live, it would only be a counterfeit of living, robbed by her absence of everything that gives savor to existence. Your honor, that's the sentence to which I'm condemned, if you rob me of her.