The Boston order had essentially saved the company and, as a result, Nathan became a frequent visitor and dinner guest at the house. On the third such evening he brought twenty long-stemmed roses, and he grinned with his usual confidence and handed them to her. Mother and Juliette exchanged glances but made no comment. By the end of that dinner they were treating him like a family friend. They called him Monsieur Ohm-bois, and he enjoyed that. Her, he called Miss Helen, and then just Helen. He said the first-name basis was the American way and that the proper pronunciation of those accented vowels defeated him. He told them his family had been Americans who’d moved north to Canada, and then some had gone back. His parents had moved to New Mexico for the climate, and he was now dividing his time between England and the Continent and North America, always on the lookout for new business opportunities. Before long it became her task after those visits to see him out, to turn on the lights on the stairway and to walk down with him and then to unlock the front door.
