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confused by what he was seeing. He looked from one to the other repeatedly, as though trying to derive an explanation in his own mind for two women so totally identical, and so beautiful, and yet it was as though he sensed a difference between them. His eyes were riveted on Victoria, with her hair slightly more windblown than Olivia's, her dress identical, yet somehow more easily worn, there was something irreverent and shocking about her. And yet, to the naked eye, one couldn't see how outrageous she was, but one could sense it.
    "Oh my, " Edward Henderson said, smiling as he watched Charles' reaction. "Did I forget to warn you? "
    "I'm afraid you did, sir, " Charles Dawson said, blushing, peeling his eyes off of Victoria, and glancing at Olivia again in confusion, and then back at their father.
    They were used to it, and were amused, but he obviously wasn't.
    "Merely an optical illusion, don't worry about it, " Edward Henderson teased him. He liked Charles. He seemed to be a good man. And they had had a very good session, full of bright new ideas, and ways to improve his businesses, and protect his investments. "It must have been the sherry." He grinned at the younger man, and Charles Dawson laughed, suddenly looking boyish. He was thirty six years old, but in the past year, he had come to look so serious that his friends said he looked suddenly much older. And now, he looked like a boy again as he stared in confused disbelief at the two beauties before him. And even more confusingly, they moved toward him in unison, unconscious of how totally their movements mirrored each other. They each shook hands with him, and Edward introduced Olivia again, and Victoria for the first time, and they both laughed, and pointed out to their father that he had gotten it wrong, which made Charles laugh even more.
    "Does he do that often? " he asked, feeling more at ease with them than he had a moment before, though still quite dazzled. It would be impossible not to.
    "All the time, though we don't always tell him, " Victoria answered, meeting his eyes squarely. Charles seemed fascinated by her, as though he could sense something unusual about her. In the subtlest of ways, she was more sensual than her sister, yet the clothes, the look, the hair were the same, but the inner workings weren't.
    "When they were very young, " Edward explained, "we used to put different-colored hair ribbons in their hair, to identify them.
    It worked perfectly, and then one day, we discovered that the little monsters had learned to take off their hair ribbons and tie them again, very carefully, to confuse us. They would trade places that way, and it went on for months before we discovered it. They were quite dreadful as children, " he said, with obvious pride and affection.
    Despite his dislike for the public stir they caused whenever he took them out, he adored them. They had been the final gift of a woman he had loved with his entire soul, and he had never loved anyone again after her, except her daughters.
    "Are they better behaved now? " Charles asked, still amused by them, and the shock they had caused him. He had had absolutely no warning that there even were twins, neither from Edward Henderson, nor John Watson.
    "They're only slightly better now, " Edward said grudgingly, and they all laughed, and then he scowled at both of them, as though issuing a warning. "But you'd better behave yourselves, you two. These two gentlemen tell me that it's necessary to go to New York for a month or so, in order to take care of some of my business, and if you can manage not to turn the town on its ear this time, I'll take you with me.
    But any nonsense from either of you, " he said, wishing he could tell which one of them was Victoria, but he couldn't, "and I'll pack you right back here with Bertie."
    "Yes, sir, " Olivia said quietly with a smile, knowing that the warning was not meant for her, but for her sister. Suspecting that he wasn't quite sure at the moment which of