It was an unusual one. Carolyn, a few years older, tried to be a mentor, instructing Jenna in subtleties of American—or at least Bostonian—tastes in dress, makeup, and interior decoration. She even prodded Jenna to take up ten- nis, and Jenna, eager to please her new friend, went so far as to take lessons. It was a disaster; as the pro put it on the morning that he advised her to try almost any other sport, “Jenna, you simply have no concept of hitting a racket ball.’’

At the same time that Carolyn took a dominant role socially, she also leaned on Jenna emotionally. It was obvious that she badly wanted a confidante, preferably one from outside her accustomed circle. Yet, her confidences were slow in coming, delivered in little bits and pieces. They had to do, of course, with her husband.

Cameron Chandler was a mystery to Jenna. His demeanor toward her was, at first, cordial, then merely indulgent, then almost hostile. She suspected that he was threatened by her closeness to Carolyn; many men felt that way about their wives’ friends. She finally mentioned it to Carolyn.

“Please, Jenna. It’s the same way he reacts to my family. He feels insecure around them, and so he makes up reasons to dislike them. God, the nonsense. It’s a real problem.”

“Why should he feel insecure?”

“Do you really want to know? I wonder if you’ll understand. What it comes down to is that his people have been better-fixed financially over the last couple of generations than mine, but mine have been in Boston two centuries longer.” It was no news to Jenna that discrepancies in family prestige might contribute to marital discord, although when she was new to the country, it had come as a surprise to her that Americans could concern themselves with such matters almost as much as Remalis. The Americans she had known in the Middle East had never mentioned their ancestors farther back than a grandparent or two, and even then, their stories often seemed to emphasize how poor their families had been. In any case, the idea of the ancientness of Carolyn’s line versus the wealth of Cameron’s as a major cause of strife rang untrue—more likely, it was only a symptom of a deeper problem. Nor did it explain Cameron’s obvious resentment of Jenna.