ten o'clock
Her efficiency left even the capable Julia gasping and outdistanced . Barbara was equal to every claim husband , children , family , and friends could make . She came down to an eight o'clock breakfast , a chattering little son on each side of her , announcing briskly that the tiny Malcolm had already had his bath . She started the little people on the day 's orderly round of work and play while opening letters and chatting with her father ; earned the housemaid 's eternal affection by personally dusting the big drawing-room and replacing the flowers ; answered the telephone in her pleasantly modulated voice ; faced her husband during his ten o'clock breakfast , and discussed the foreign news with him in a manner Julia thought extraordinarily clever ; and at eleven came with the baby into her mother 's sunny morning-room for a little feminine gossip over Malcolm 's second breakfast . Barbara never left a note unanswered , no old friend was neglected ; tea hour always found the shady side porch full of callers , children strayed from the candy on the centre table to the cakes near the teapot , the doctor 's collie lay panting in the doorway . Barbara 's rich soft laugh , the new tones that her voice had gained in the past years , somehow dominated everything . Julia felt a vague new restlessness and discontent assail her at this contact with Barbara 's full and happy life .