A few years passed, and Goldie was again forced to keep tabs on Scrooge through the newspaper. The stock market report told her how McDuck Enterprises was doing on Wall Street, but precious little about Scrooge McDuck himself.

She was humming an old song and shining the hotel’s silver one afternoon when the desk clerk stuck his head into the kitchen. "Phone for you, Miss O’Gilt."

"I’ll be right there." She rinsed the silver polish off her hands and went to the desk. "Hello?"

"Miss Goldie? It’s Donald. Scrooge’s nephew?"

Cold fear flooded her body. "What’s wrong?" she asked quickly.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Donald said. She began to breathe again. "I’ve got a little favor to ask. Actually, I guess it’s a pretty big favor, but…Uncle Scrooge’s Golden Jubilee is coming up next month. He’ll have been in Duckburg for fifty years, and the family and I would like to plan a little something special to mark the occasion. The problem is, what do you get the World’s Richest Duck? So, we were thinking, if we paid your plane fare--"

Goldie grinned. "Say no more, Donald. It would be my pleasure."

The only time Goldie O’Gilt had been out of Canada before was when she visited her sister’s family in Nome. Alaska wasn’t appreciably different was Yukon Territory. Calisota, however, was a different world altogether. Although the land surrounding Duckburg was by no means flat, there were none of the towering ice-capped mountains and glaciers she was used to. The weather was balmy, and the sun seemed closer.

She stepped off the plane, carrying her single suitcase. Donald was waiting for her in an old-fashioned red car with a lady duck.

"Hi, Miss Goldie! Did you have a nice flight?" he asked.

"Good enough, I suppose. I got here in one piece, anyway." She didn’t like airplanes much.

Donald took her suitcase. "Goldie, this is my girl, Daisy. Daisy, Goldie."

"Hello," Daisy said, shaking hands. "I’ve heard a lot about you."

"Pleased to meet you."

"You wouldn’t believe the excitement we’ve had around here lately," Donald said. "Some of my uncle’s enemies teamed up to hold a phony contest. Whoever could give the best gift to Uncle Scrooge was supposed to win a million dollars! Of course, it was all a hoax designed to cover their plan to break into the Money Bin, but—"

"Good heavens! Did it turn out all right?"

"Oh, yeah. It’ll take more than Flintheart Glomgold, Magica DeSpell and all the Beagle Boys to defeat him!"

Goldie smiled. "I’d believe that."

The three ducks somehow managed to fit into the small car with Goldie’s suitcase. They stopped briefly at Daisy’s house so Goldie could change out of her travelling clothes and into…

"Well?" she asked, stepping out of Daisy’s bedroom in her old red ballgown. It had been her pride and joy in her youth, but it felt somehow wrong at her current age.

"Oh, it’s lovely!" Daisy said sincerely. This failed to reassure Goldie, however, since the younger duck’s fashion sense left much to be desired. That huge bow made her look like a schoolgirl, for heaven’s sake! Goldie desperately wanted to drag the poor girl to a department store and buy her a new wardrobe, but there wouldn’t be time, and it wasn’t really her place.

"You look great, Miss Goldie," Donald said. "My uncle’s eyes will pop clear out of his head!"

As Donald complimented her, Daisy looked faintly jealous, which amused Goldie for some reason.

"I’m surprised this thing still fits," Goldie said more to herself than her hosts, lying her hands across her still-flat stomach. "Well, just let me get my jewelry on, and we can get going."

"We’re here, Miss Quackfaster!" Daisy announced as she and Goldie walked into the lobby of Scrooge’s office.

The elderly secretary looked up from her paperwork with a smile. "Oh, wonderful! All that hubbub almost spoiled our surprise!"

Daisy laughed. "What would Uncle Scrooge say if he knew we had this planned even before that phony contest?"

"He’ll never hear it from me!" Miss Quackfaster said with a devious grin. "I’ll show you right in."

Goldie was suddenly nervous.

"Mr. McDuck," Miss Quackfaster called, "there’s a someone here with something special for you!"

"Well, throw him out!" came Scrooge’s voice. "I’m busy trying to make sure every penny of my money is back in the bin!"

Miss Quackfaster winked at her, then stepped aside. Goldie followed Daisy into Scrooge’s office. The triplet nephews were shifting around huge stacks of paper, helping their uncle get organized. As she slunk past them, one began, "Say, isn’t that—"

Daisy shushed him. "Now run along," she whispered. "This won’t be something for the eyes of a Junior Woodchuck!"

"No kidding!" giggled the boys as Daisy shoved them through the door, then followed them out.

Goldie stood quietly for a moment, watching him. He obviously didn’t know she was there. There he was, in his office, amid papers and money bags…the great tycoon, Scrooge McDuck. She smiled. But somewhere under there was also a shy young sourdough…

He pounded the intercom button on his desk. "And Miss Quackfaster—tell whoever it was that the contest was a hoax! They were never going to give me my secret desire!"

"Oh, no, sir?" came a slightly amused voice through the intercom.

The moment was right. "You know, Scrooge…" she began casually. He went rigid in his chair, snapping his pencil in two in surprise. "This is also the fiftieth anniversary of something else. It’s been fifty years since you left the Klondike!"

He turned slowly in his chair, all color gone from his face. She stood up, staring at her like a mouse facing a cat. "Goldie!" he squeaked. "Wh-wh-what do you w-w-want?"

She smiled even more widely. Donald was right. This dress was the best choice. She stepped closer, and he stumbled back into his chair. "Your family and friends chipped in to fly me here for your Golden Jubilee. They all wanted to give something to the duck who has everything that money can buy."

He was sweating, his face terrified. "L-l-l-like wh-wh-what?"

With slow, sensuous movements, she leaned forward, forcing him to press further back in his chair. "Something only I can give him." She leaned closer. "Just a little something…special…"

Closer…closer… She began to whisper in his ear, tender words of love that sent a shiver down both their spines. Finally, when he was too entranced to resist, she seized him by the whiskers and pulled his bill to hers for a kiss. It was a long, intense, and amazingly mutual kiss. Time seemed to flow rapidly backward, as if it was still 1898 and the air of White Agony Valley was in their lungs.

At last, it ended. Scrooge jerked backward and slammed his fists on his desk, blushing a deep scarlet hue. "Dagnabbit!" he yelled. "I’m too busy for this kind of foolishness!"

"I know, I know," she said with fond amusement.

He staggered to his feet and leaned on the desk, shaking his fist at her as she sashayed toward the door. "I’ll bet that idiot nephew of mine put you up to this! Wait’ll I get my hands on him!"

"Him and a bunch of other ‘idiots,’" she said, adjusting her hair.

He sat down again and grabbed a stack of papers seemingly at random, hunching over his desk to study the documents. "I have a worldwide empire to run! I can’t just drop everything and fritter away time on nonsense!"

She paused in the doorway with a tolerant smile. "I know, I know! I’ll wait." She let that sink in. "’Bye, Scrooge." She shut the door and was gone.