“They call each other thou, Senhora Joanna,” she exclaimed. “That looks strange,” she continued in shrill accents, and very much excited.
The gentleman went away at five. When Juliana heard the door open, she went out to the landing and saw Luiza leaning over the banisters and saying in low and friendly accents to some one below,—
“Very well; I will be there. Good-by.”
Juliana was seized with an attack of curiosity that resembled an attack of fever. During the evening she devoured Luiza with eager glances that flashed like lightning. In her desire to surprise her mistress in an intrigue, the perfectly natural demeanor of the latter filled her with impatience, as might a chest securely fastened with lock and key, which she desired to open but could not.
“Go on!” she said in her own mind to Luiza; “I will catch you yet, you shameless creature!”
She fancied that Luiza’s eyes had a fatigued expression. She studied her attitudes, the tones of her voice. When she saw her help herself twice to the roast meat, she said to herself,—
“This has given her an appetite.”
And when she saw her lean back in her easy-chair, after dinner, with an air of fatigue, she said to herself that this was the exhaustion of excitement.
Luiza asked for coffee.
“Half a cup, but strong, very strong,” she said.