Bonus: The Curious Neighbor

It was one summer when a little girl moved into the house next door to Mrs. Knowles.

She was a petite girl with light brown hair and an unmistakably shy air about her. She looked to be around sixteen or seventeen.

The neighborhood wasn't quite what you'd call extremely upscale, but it was certainly rather affluent.

Mrs. Knowles imagined that the girl must be the daughter of a wealthy family, orphaned at a young age and left to inherit her parents' fortune, now living quietly in that house.

It was a little while later that a handsome young man with blond hair began coming and going from the neighbor's house.

Could he be her sweetheart? Or perhaps her husband?

Mrs. Knowles secretly thrilled at the possibilities.

After all, since her husband, who had been a trading merchant, passed away, her days had consisted of little more than sitting in a window-side armchair knitting or tending to the garden. All her children were married and living on their own.

For Mrs. Knowles, who had so much time on her hands, the somewhat unusual neighbors were an irresistible source of curiosity.

Toward the end of summer, a storm arrived...