ed 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. He
_must_ have noticed that you never went again after that discovery, and
one really wouldn't like him to think that you were offended."

"Offended?" echoed the girl with a laugh. "Offended at what?"

"Oh, some people, you know, might think his behaviour strange--using a
name that's not his own, and--and so on."

"Some people might, no doubt. But the poor man, as you call him, is
probably quite indifferent as to what we think of him."

"Don't you think it would be well if you went in and just thanked him
for sending the servant?"

"Perhaps," replied Bertha, carelessly.

But she did not go to Mr. Jollyman's, and Mrs. Cross soon forgot the
suggestion.

Martha entered upon her duties, and discharged them with such zeal,
such docility, that her mistress never tired of lauding her. She was a
young woman of rather odd appearance; slim and meagre and red-headed,
with a never failing simper on her loose lips, and blue eyes that
frequently watered; she had somehow an air of lurking gentility in
faded youth. Undeniable as were the good qualities she put forth on
this scene of innumerable domestic failures, Bertha could not
altogether like her. Submissive to the point of slavishness, she had at
times a look which did not harmonize at all with this demeanour, a
something in her eyes disagreeably suggestive of mocking insolence.
Bertha particularly noticed this on the day after Martha had received
her first wages. Leave having been given her to go out in the afternoon
to make some purchases, she was rather late in returning, and Bertha,
m