Barbara followed him up the richly carpeted stairs into a magnificent drawing-room on the first floor. This room had been newly furnished, and showed excellent taste in all its arrangements. The electric light was subdued by golden silk draperies over the pomegranate shaped globes, the curtains were drawn before the large windows, there was a fire in the grate. From the depths of a deep arm-chair a tall woman dressed in black rose as Barbara entered. She had a pale face and radiant red-gold hair. She came a step or two forward and half hesitated whether to hold out her hand or not. Barbara advanced to meet her. For a moment she could not recognize in this graceful and perfectly dressed lady Nurse Ives, whom she had last seen at Ashley Mansions. “Is this really you?” was the exclamation which burst involuntarily from her lips. “Yes, it is I,” replied Mrs. Tarbot. “I am changed.” “You are transformed.” 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. Barbara started and colored. “Oh, I beg your pardon,” she replied. “I hope you will forgive me. You are so transformed that I did not know you.” “That is true, Lady Pelham,” was the slow reply; “I am as much altered as the circumstances of my life have changed. When you last saw me I was only a nurse. My parentage is humble, my mother is a very humble person indeed. She is an excellent woman and with plenty of character, but she belongs to the peasantry of our county.” “What is your county?” asked Barbara. “Cornwall.” “Ah!” “My mother has a little cottage in Cornwall by the sea coast. She pays ten pounds a year for it. She lives not very far from Falmouth. I remember the time when there was extreme difficulty in meeting that ten pounds rent. Then I went away and was trained as a nurse, and——” “And you married Dr. Tarbot?”