‘Your papa had a visitor this morning,’ Rosalie said. ‘Can you guess who it was?’

‘Simon Barnier?’ hazarded Hélène.

‘No, not him,’ said Rosalie, surprised that he should have been the one Hélène had first thought of. Then she saw the look of relief on her daughter’s face and realised that she had been suggesting the person she least wanted to see.

‘It was Monsieur Chalfont,’ said her father.

Rosalie saw the tide of pink spread across Hélène’s cheeks and gave an inward smile. So, Monsieur Chalfont had already made an impression.

‘I find him charming, don’t you?’ asked Rosalie.

‘Yes, indeed,’ whispered Hélène.

Emile, who had not noticed Hélène’s blush, said, ‘Has he always behaved with propriety, Hélène?’

‘Propriety?’ echoed Hélène. ‘How could he not?’

‘But he has been attentive to you?’

‘No more than anyone else. I danced with him at the ball and you saw me sitting next to him at dinner last night.’ She turned to her mother. ‘And that was because you put me there, Maman!’

‘Please don’t speak to your mother in that tone of voice, Hélène,’ snapped her father.

‘Sorry, Maman,’ she muttered, and Rosalie smiled to show that this time it didn’t matter. After all, it was a fair comment.

‘The thing is, chérie,’ Rosalie said, taking the initiative and turning the conversation back in the direction she wanted, ‘Monsieur Chalfont has visited your father this morning to ask if he may pay his addresses to you. Not to become engaged or anything like that, simply to have the chance to build a friendship. All good marriages are founded on friendship.’

‘Though there is no question of marriage at this time,’ stated her father. ‘You’re far too young to be thinking that far ahead.’

‘Of course your father is quite right,’ Rosalie put in quickly, ‘but should you object to him coming to visit you, perhaps taking a walk or carriage ride? With Annette as well, of course. The proprieties must be observed.’

‘No, Maman, I should not object. I should like to get to know him better.’ Hélène spoke calmly, but inside her heart was racing. Rupert had come to Papa to ask for her. She understood that they must move slowly to please her parents, for the sake of decorum, but she also knew that if he asked her, she would go with him tomorrow.

She caught her father looking at her and hoped that he couldn’t see into her heart and know the jolt of joy that had set it thudding so fast and so loudly that she was surprised neither of her parents seemed to hear it.

‘If you are alone with him beyond the walls of this house, you must take that girl with you,’ said her father. ‘I will not have your reputation compromised.’

‘I understand, Papa,’ Hélène replied demurely.

‘Then if you will excuse me, my dear,’ he said to Rosalie, ‘I will leave you to it. I shall see you both at dinner.’

When he had left the room, Rosalie smiled at her daughter. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I told you that we should be looking for a husband for you next, and now you already have a beau. But you do understand, don’t you, that when you are out anywhere with him you must have Annette in attendance.’