Mrs. Tarbot gave a faint smile.
“Won’t you sit down?” she said.
“Thank you,” answered Barbara. She seated herself and threw up her veil.
“It is good of you to pay me this visit,” said Tarbot’s wife.
“I have come to you because your husband is out. This is not an ordinary call.”
“Indeed!” Mrs. Tarbot looked at Barbara with an intense and hungry stare.
“I will treat whatever you tell me as confidential,” she said.
Barbara looked full at her. Her very voice had altered, her manners were those of a refined and well-educated woman. Her dress, black, and of the softest lace and silk, scarcely rustled as she moved.
Now as she returned Barbara’s gaze her eyes grew bright. The eyes themselves were of a very pale blue, painfully deficient in color by daylight, but at night the pupils were apt to dilate, and in the midst of the white face the eyes glowed dark, somber and watchful. Barbara thought she had never seen a more peculiar or a stronger type of face. She was so much engaged in the amazing discovery of the changed Nurse Ives that she could not speak for a moment.
“Have you got over your astonishment?” said Mrs. Tarbot at last, speaking very softly.