Cream could not be more velvety soft than Joan’s voice, the eye of a dove more mild than hers, as she conversed with Lady Henry Borrowdaile’s housekeeper. And she was armed with a magnificent reference. There had been a Maria Jordan at Lord Northmuir’s, as housemaid, in Joan’s day there, but the real Maria had gone to America, and it was safe and simple to write in praise of this young person’s character and accomplishments, signing the document Mercy Milton. At worst, even if Lady Henry’s housekeeper sent the reference to Lord Northmuir’s housekeeper, the imposition could not be proved. Maria might have had time to come back from America, and Miss Milton, now departed, might have consented to please the housemaid by giving her a written recommendation. But Maria Jordan’s manner as an applicant to fill her cousin’s place was so respectful and respectable, and the need to decide was so pressing, that Lady Henry’s housekeeper resolved to accept Jordan, so to speak, on face value. That same night Jessie Adams went home (or somewhere else), and her cousin stepped into the vacant niche. Meanwhile, Joan had, on the plea of picking up her luggage, driven to one or two cheap shops in the Tottenham Court Road, and provided herself with a tin box and a suitable outfit for a superior housemaid. She was thankful to find that she would have a room to herself, and delighted to discover that Jessie Adams and Mathilde, Lady Henry’s own maid, had been on terms of friendship. Their rooms adjoined; Jessie had been teaching Mathilde English in odd moments, and Mathilde had often obligingly carried messages to the enamoured greengrocer. Joan lost not a moment in winning her way into Mathilde’s good graces, wasting the less time because she had already made preparations with a view to such an end. She had bought a large box of delicious sweets, which she pretended her own "young man" had given her, and this she placed at the French girl’s disposal. It happened that Lady Henry was dining out and going to the theatre afterwards that night, and Mathilde, being free, visited Maria easily in her room, where she sat on the bed, swinging her well-shod feet and eating cream chocolates. Maria, in the course of conversation, chanced to mention that her "young man" was the partner of a French hairdresser in Knightsbridge; that the two were intimate friends; that the hairdresser was young, singularly handsome, well-to-do, and looking out for a Parisienne as a wife. This Admirable Crichton was in France at present, on business, Maria added, but he would return in the course of a fortnight, when Maria’s "young man" should effect an introduction, as she was sure that Monsieur Jacques would fall in love at first sight with Mathilde.