This is the story - not an untrue one, as it happens - of a man who found himself overtaken by surprise long past the usual age of surprises, a man whose heart was compelled to undergo a dramatic change at a time when he thought he was beyond change, a man whose most cherished beliefs were challenged and nearly overwhelmed; a man who, having passed through agonizing fire, discovered a wholly different sort of happiness in the most unlikely way, in the most unexpected place, and at the hands of an extraordinary person so different from himself that, had you informed him in advance, clearly and in detail, of exactly what was about to befall him he would have laughed you off as foolish or loony or both.