  The essence of romance is mystery. In this talk, given in honor of the 60th
birthday of Michio Jimbo, I will explore the meaning of this for the Ising
model beginning in 1946 with Bruria Kaufman and Willis Lamb, continuing with
the wedding by Jimbo and Miwa in 1980 of the Ising model with the Painlev{\'e}
VI equation which had been first discovered by Picard in 1889. I will conclude
with the current fascination of the magnetic susceptibility and explore some of
the mysteries still outstanding.
