'What do you mean?'
'What did you do with this one devoted boyfriend? Did you kiss and pet at least?' I nodded. 'Did you undress, at least partially?' I shook my head. She grimaced. 'Did you ever French kiss . . . you know,' she added quickly, 'touch tongues?' I couldn't remember if that had ever happened. My hesitation was enough to convince her it hadn't. 'Did you let him give you hickeys?'
'No.'
'Good. I hate them, too. They suck until they're satisfied and we're the ones who walk around with these ugly spots on our necks and breasts.'
'Breasts?'
'Don't worry,' she said, getting up. 'I'll teach you what to do. For now, if Martin or anyone gets too demanding, just tell him you're having your period, understand? Nothing turns them off as fast as that.
'Come on,' she said. 'Let's go look at the things Mother bought you. I'll help you decide what to wear tonight.'
I followed her back to the house, my footsteps on the patio a lot more unsure, my heart beating with a timid thump. Gisselle and I were so identical we could gaze at each other and think we were looking into mirrors, but on the inside, we were more different than a bird and a cat. I wondered what, if anything, we would find to draw us together so we could become the sisters we were meant to be.
Gisselle was surprised by many of the things Daphne had bought me. Then, after she gave it some thought, her surprise turned to jealousy and anger.
'She never buys me skirts this short unless I throw a tantrum, and these colors are always too bright for her. I love this blouse. It's not fair,' she wailed. 'Now I want new things, too.'
'Daphne told me she wanted to buy things that were different from the things you had. She thought you wouldn't like it if we had identical clothes to go along with our identical faces,' I explained.
Still pouting, Gisselle held one of my blouses against her and studied it in the mirror. Then she dropped it on the bed and opened the drawers of the armoire to inspect my new panties.
'When I bought a set of these, she thought they were too sexy,' she said, holding up the abbreviated light silks.
'I've never worn anything like it,' I confessed.
'Well, I'm borrowing this pair of panties, this skirt, and this blouse for tonight,' she informed me firmly.
'I don't mind,' I said, 'but—'
'But what?' Sisters share things with each other, don't they?'
I wanted to remind her of the nasty things she had said on the stairway in the morning when I came upon her returning from the ball, how she would never let me borrow her pretty red dress, but I realized that was before my father had had his conversation with her. It did bring about a change in her attitude toward me. Then I recalled something Daphne had said.
'Daphne disapproves of girls sharing things. Even sisters. She said so,' I told her.
'You just let me worry about Mother. There are a lot of things she says and then goes and does the exact opposite,' Gisselle replied as she went through the blouses to decide if there were any others she wanted to borrow.
And so for the first dinner we would have together as a family, Gisselle and I wore the same style skirt and blouse. She thought it would be amusing for us to brush and tie our hair into French knots as well. We dressed in my room and sat at my vanity table.
'Here,' she said, taking a gold ring off her pinky and handing it to me. 'You wear this tonight. wear no jewelry, since you have none.'
'Why?' I asked. I saw the impish glint in her eyes. 'Daddy wants you on his left, I imagine, and me, as usual on his right.'
'So?'
'I'll sit on his left; you sit on his right. Let's see if he knows the difference,' she said.
'Oh, he will. He knew I wasn't you the moment he set eyes on me,' I told her.
Gisselle didn't know whether to take this as something good or bad. I saw the confusion in her face for a moment and then the decision.
'We'll see,' she said. 'I told Beau there were differences between us, differences maybe only I can see. I know what,' she said, bouncing in her chair. 'We'll tease Beau tonight. You'll pretend you're me and pretend I'm you.'
'Oh, I couldn't do that,' I said, my heart fluttering with the thought of being Beau's girlfriend, even for a few minutes.
'Of course you can. He thought you were me the first time he set eyes on you, didn't he?'
'That was different. He didn't know I existed,' I explained.
'I'll tell you exactly how to act and what to say,' she continued, ignoring my point. 'Oh, this is going to be fun for a change. I mean, real fun, with it all starting at dinner,' she decided.
However, just as I predicted, our father knew instantly that we had taken the wrong seats at the dining room table. Daphne, who raised her eyebrows as soon as she saw the two of us in my new clothes, sat down, for the moment confused. But my father threw his head back and roared with laughter.
'What is so funny, Pierre?' Daphne demanded. She had come to dinner dressed formally in a black dress with diamond teardrop earrings and a matching diamond necklace and bracelet. The dress had a V-neck collar that
