"There now! If that wasn't a good idea! Who do you think sent that
girl, Bertha?--Mr. Jollyman."
Bertha kept silence.
"I had to go into the shop yesterday, and I happened to speak to Mr.
Jollyman of the trouble I had in finding a good servant. It occurred
to me that he _might_ just possibly know of some one. He promised to
make inquiries, and here at once comes the nicest girl I've seen for
a long time. She had to leave her last place because it was too
hard; just fancy, a shop where she had to cook for sixteen people,
and see to five bedrooms; no wonder she broke down, poor thing.
She's been resting for a month or two: and she lives in the same
house as a person named Mrs. Hopper, who is the sister of the wife
of Mr. Jollyman's assistant. And she's quite content with fifteen
pounds--quite."
As she listened, Bertha wrinkled her forehead, and grew rather
absent. She made no remark, until, after a long account of the
virtues she had already descried in Martha--this was the girl's
name--Mrs. Cross added that of course she must go at once and
thank Mr. Jollyman.
"I suppose you still address him by that name?" fell from Bertha.
"That name? Why, I'd really almost forgotten that it wasn't his real
name. In any case, I couldn't use the other in the shop, could I?"
"Of course not; no."
"Now you speak of it, Bertha," pursued Mrs. Cross, "I wonder whether
he knows that I know who he is?"
"Certainly he does."
"When one thinks of it, wouldn't it be better, Bertha, for you to go
to the shop again now and then? I'm afraid the poor man may feel
hurt.
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