Ok! I think I get it now. Thank you. As always, your help is invaluable! :)

中でも彼のお気に入りは、母親のお腹にいる時、双子だ ったという少女。

To my surprise, what this sentence says may well affect the meaning of the ending of the book. :)

So, am I correct that this sentence does not say anything about the other twin, only that 少女 was a twin while in the womb?

Unless this is a perfectly normal idiom or tactful way to say it, it seems to me like the author has gone out of his way to construct that sentence to avoid actually saying that the other twin died at birth, although it wouldn't be an unreasonable conclusion to assume that she did, since it only specifies being a twin before birth. (I think once a twin, always a twin, even if your twin was never born, but...)

It just seems to be an odd way to say it unless there's a reason, but I certainly can't judge that, which is why I'm asking. :)

You should have provided some context instead of showing a sentence as shocking as this out of the blue. If something confuses you, it will probably confuse us even more because we do not know the story.

Yes, you are.

Though without context or even the slightest idea of what this story is about, I do not feel the author did what you are thinking he did. Looks like a very plain sentence to me.

Fair enough. It's not that the sentence is awkward or anything (as if I could tell! :p). I was just thinking it would've been simpler to say she was a girl whose twin had died at birth, if that's what happened. ;)

I think I have just one more question (but every time I think that, I'm wrong :(). Is 宿泊 a room in a hotel and 宿泊先 the person who runs the hotel? Or is 宿泊先 the hotel itself (or even your residence??)? Or is there any practical difference at all? These were used in different sentences and I'm trying to understand the distinction between the two.

Any sentence that is taken out of context COULD sound less than normal when it may sound just normal in context.

You seem to be confused here.

宿泊 is the action of staying overnight at a place other than your own home.

宿泊先 is the place that you are staying when you are not staying home. The nuance is your "contact information".

OH! I get it! All is clear now! Well, at least that much is clear. ;)

It looks like all the color-coded parts of my document are back to b/w now, so I believe that's a wrap! :pandahurray:

I can't thank you enough for all your generous help! :rheart:

Gah, I'd entirely missed seeing the first line of your post above (until it was quoted in the email notification I only just read today).

I do apologize about the shocking sentence! :o I was so focused on the nuances of the twin part, I'd forgotten about the first clause, which I now realize makes him sound like a pedophile out of context. :eek: But then, the actual reason he was interested in her (eugenics) wasn't really all that benign either. :(