Coffee and Milk : Patricia Highsmith, "The Heroine"

I really like Patricia Highsmith's The Heroine, but I have mistook this story for Mary Higgins Clark's work nearly a year. I don't have any idea why. :( Anyway, there's a scene involved coffee and milk...Lucille's new nurse of Christiansen family's children. And the children, Nicky is nine years old and Heloise is six years old. Of course Lucille's not an ordinary, kind, devoted nurse-above all, she's Highsmith's heroine! But it passed a bound of our theme. Just coffee and milk now. :)

"Dad always gives us a little bit of his coffee, " Nicky remarked as he took his place again.
Lucille had been wondering whether the children would mention the accident to their mother. She sensed that Nicky was offering her a bribe. "Does he?" she asked.
"He pours a little in out milk," Nicky went on, "just so you can see the color."
"Like this?" And Lucille poured a bit from the graceful silver spout into each glass.
The children gasped with pleasure. "Yes!"
"Mother doesn't like us to have coffee," Nicky explained, "But when she's not looking, Dad let's us have a little like you did. Dad says his day wouldn't be any goo without his coffee, and I'm the same way . . .Gosh, Catherine wouldn't give us any coffee like that, would she, Heloise? "
"Not her!" Heloise took a long, delicious draught from her glass, which she held with both hands.

Patricia Highsmith, The Heroine
Sleuths of the Century (Carroll & Graf, 2000) p. 340

Oh, 'the accident'? That's not much of an accident. Lucille just spilled her coffee on her apron. And the apron was made of oilcloth. :) I don't know exact reason why I like this scene so much. But...when I was a child, mom gave us-my sister and me-some kind of very thin coffee milk, too. I guess a half teaspoon of coffee in 3 cups of hot milk. No sugar added, thus rather salty than sweet. Usually served with pancakes.