“I will try to,” said Barbara.
“Will you do something for me?”
“What?”
“Will you break this terrible news to Mrs. Pelham?”
“Oh, I cannot, I cannot,” said the girl, trembling and covering her face.
“That means that you will not? You are, I know, a brave woman. Ought you to think of yourself in a moment like this?”
The girl colored; then drew herself together.
“You do right to remind me,” she said. “I would not be a coward for the world. If you think it right, I will go to her.”
“I do. I knew you had plenty of pluck.”
Barbara glanced up at Pelham. There was an expression on his face which she had never seen there before. It puzzled and terrified her.