Then befell the incident of Mrs. Cross’ Martha.

Not without uneasiness had Warburton suggested a servant on the recommendation of Mrs. Hopper, but credentials seemed to be fairly good, and when, after a week or two, Mrs. Cross declared herself more than satisfied, he blessed his good luck.  Long ago he had ceased to look for the reappearance at the shop of Bertha Cross; he thought of the girl now and then, generally reverting in memory to that day when he had followed her and her mother into Kew Gardens—­ a recollection which had lost all painfulness, and shone idyllically in summer sunlight, but it mattered nothing to him that Bertha showed herself no more.  Of course she knew his story from Rosamund, and in all likelihood she felt her self-respect concerned in holding aloof from an acquaintance of his ambiguous standing.  It mattered not a jot.

Yet when the tragi-comedy of Martha’s outbreak unexpectedly introduced him to the house at Walham Green, he experienced a sudden revival of the emotions of a year ago.  After his brief meeting with Bertha, he did not go straight back to the shop, but wandered a little in quiet by-ways, thinking hard and smiling.  Nothing more grotesque than the picture of Mrs. Cross amid her shattered crockery, Mrs. Cross pointing to the prostrate Martha, Mrs. Cross panting forth the chronicle of her woes; but Mrs. Cross’ daughter was not involved in this scene of pantomime; she walked across the stage, but independently, with a simple dignity, proof against paltry or ludicrous circumstance.  If any one could see the laughable side of such domestic squalor, assuredly it was Bertha herself of that Will felt assured.  Did he not remember her smile when she had to discuss prices and qualities in the shop?  Not many girls smile with so much implication of humorous comment.

He had promised to look out for another servant, but hardly knew how to go to work.  First of all, Mrs. Hopper was summoned to an interview in the parlour behind the shop, and Martha’s case was fully discussed.  With much protesting and circumlocution, Mrs. Hopper brought herself at length to own that Martha had been known to “take too much,” but that was so long ago, and the girl had solemnly declared, etc., etc.  However, as luck would have it, she did know of another girl, a really good general servant, who had only just been thrown out of a place by the death of her mistress, and who was living at home in Kentish Town.  Thither sped Warburton; he saw the girl and her mother, and, on returning, sent a note to Mrs. Cross, in which he detailed all he had learnt concerning the new applicant.  At the close he wrote:  “You are aware, I think, that the name under which I do business is not my own.  Permit me, in writing to you on a private matter, to use my own signature”—­ which accordingly followed.  Moreover, he dated the letter from his lodgings, not from the shop.