"I didn’t know you had a sister!" Surprise was responsible for Peggy’s exclamation. "I’m several years younger than Grace, but there’s a strong resemblance. It was her picture you found that day, Peggy." "And she died. How dreadful it must have been--" Peggy’s sympathetic voice ceased suddenly, as Elaine’s look of agitation told her that she had guessed wrong. "She’s not dead," Elaine said breathlessly. "She’s living, and what’s more, she’s living here, Peggy." "Here?" "On Friendly Terrace." Peggy had been prepared for unusual disclosures, but this was more than she had bargained for. It was a good half minute before she could answer except by an incredulous stare. "On Friendly Terrace? In the next house?" "Yes." "You don’t mean that she’s been living there ever since you came?" "Yes." "I don’t see--why, I never heard of such a thing." But light was pouring in on Peggy. A number of matters that had puzzled her and even aroused her suspicion, suddenly became intelligible in view of the fact that the next-door cottage housed two girls instead of one. "But why--" she began breathlessly, and then checked herself. "That’s what I wanted to tell you, Peggy. It wasn’t a year ago that it all happened, and it seems the bigger half of my life. Grace was a Junior in college. It was hard to keep on with her course, after father died, but she wanted to finish. She was engaged to a young lawyer, Carlton Ross his name was, and everybody thought he was such a nice fellow and that Grace was so fortunate." Elaine’s hands were clasping and unclasping convulsively, as she told her story. Peggy laid her warm brown hand over the trembling fingers, and there was a world of friendly comfort in its clasp. "One Saturday Grace went down town to do a little shopping, and she stopped at a jeweller’s and asked to look at some diamond brooches. Some people could never understand why she did it, for, of course, she couldn’t have bought diamonds any more than she could have bought the moon. I suppose it was rather silly, but surely it isn’t unheard of, Peggy, for people to examine things they can’t afford to buy. Anyway that was what Grace did. And when she said she didn’t care to buy, and started to go out, the clerk stopped her and said he begged her pardon but there was a brooch missing." Peggy uttered a horrified exclamation. "Yes, but that was only the beginning. Grace went back, and they looked all over the counter, and the floor-walker came up, and things began to be dreadful. And then they said that she would have to be searched. Only think! Grace was almost ready to faint, she was so frightened. It was like a terrible dream, she said. It didn’t seem as if it could be such things were really happening to her. And then she thought of Carlton, and begged them to telephone for him, and he came." Peggy heaved a sigh of relief.