“You’ve done very well,” Meomartino said.

“I’ve earned every last bit of it. It meant starting all over, going back to the same dreary dives, always on the road. It meant every summer touring with the USO in Greenland and Vietnam and Korea and Germany and who knows where all, hoping somebody would see me. It meant a lot of other things, too.” She looked at him coolly. “You’re a doctor, it’s no news to you that a woman needs a sex life.”

“No great big news.”

“Well, it’s also meant a lot of terrible one-night stands because I’ve never stayed in one place long enough to develop a relationship.”

He nodded, vulnerable as always to an honest woman.

“I finally got lucky and made a couple of novelty sides the little goons all bought. But who knows what kind of records they’ll be buying next year, or for that matter, next month? My agent tells everybody I’m twenty-six, but I’m thirty-three.”

“That’s hardly old.”

“It’s old to be making your first movie. And it’s too old to make it big for the first time on TV and in the clubs. This success should have happened to me ten years ago. My figure’s harder to keep all the time and in a few years I’ll have neck wrinkles. If I don’t push hard right now it’ll all be over. So you’re not asking me to give her just a kidney. You’re asking me to give her more than I ever want to give her again.”

“I’m not asking you to give her anything,” Meomartino said.

She ground out her cigarette. “Well, don’t,” she said. “I have my own life to lead.”

“Would you like to see her?”

She nodded.

Her sister was asleep when they entered her room.

“We’d better not wake her,” Meomartino said.

“I’ll just sit here and wait.”

But she opened her eyes. “Peg,” she said.

“Hello, Mellie.” She leaned over and kissed her. “How’s Ted?”

“Fine. What a marvelous thing, to wake up and find you here!”

“And the two little Swedes?”

“They’re wonderful. They watched the Sullivan date. Hey, it was so good, I was so proud.” She looked up at her sister and sat up in bed. “Ah, no, Peg. Don’t.”

She took her twin in her arms and stroked her head. “Please, Peggy. Peggy, darling, don’t do that . . .”

Rafe walked back to his office. He sat at his desk and tried to rid himself of paper work.

You don’t know how it is between some sisters.

But I know how it is between some brothers, he thought.