her admirable cooking; the cook was ill during the greater part of her
visit, and her offer to help was gladly accepted and duly
appreciated. Something, at all events, pleased the old man, so that
before he left he asked her, half in fun, if she would come and live
with his wife. This lady, it seemed, had bad health, and no daughters;
she always had a companion of some sort, and was never satisfied with
the one she had. In Holland, as in England, it seemed posts were not
easy to fill satisfactorily, for those often in want of employment
were also constitutionally inefficient.

At the time Julia had laughingly refused the offer, now she recalled
it, and thought seriously about it. It would not be very nice, a
mixture of upper servant and lady help; the Van Heigens were bulb
growers, old-fashioned people, the lady a thorough _huisvrouw_,
nothing more probably. Still that did not matter; such things need not
be considered if the end could be attained that way. But unfortunately
it did not look very likely; the Van Heigens would pay less to a
companion than English people would, not enough to buy clothes; there
was practically nothing to be made out of it. Julia was obliged to
admit the fact to herself, and reluctantly to dismiss the Dutchman and
his offer from her thoughts.

But curiously enough, they were brought to her mind again before long;
not later, indeed, than that evening, when she went to a dance at a
neighbour's house. At this dance she met a Mr. Alexander Cross. He was
not a native of Marbridge, not at all like any of them; it is quite
possible that they would have rather looked down upon him; Julia
recognised that he barely came up to her mother's standard of a
gentleman. He seemed to be a keen business man of the energetic new
sort; he also seemed to deal in most things, flowers among them. He