"Yes, but shall I ever again be like I was?" Lilian demanded gloomily.
"Of course you will, dear. _And_ prettier. They almost always are, you know. I’ve often noticed it."
"You dear!" cried Lilian, "and do you mean to say you’ve got up earlier and come all the way down from Islington here to see me before going to the office? And me keeping you waiting!"
"Why! But of course I came. I’m responsible to you, now poor Miss Grig’s gone. I told her I would be. And I can’t tell you how glad I shall be if I suit you and you find you can keep me on. It’s such a good situation."
Lilian lifted her face again and kissed her--but not the kiss of gratitude (though there was gratitude in it), the kiss of recompense, of reward. It was Lilian who, in allowing herself to be faithfully served, was conferring the favour. Gertrude was the eternal lieutenant, without ambition, without dreams, asking only to serve with loyalty in security. In that moment Lilian understood as never before the function of these priceless Gertrudes whose first instinct when they lost one master was to attach themselves to another.
"Look here!" said Lilian. "D’you know what I want? I want you to come and live here till it’s over."
"Of course I will," Gertrude agreed, eagerly ready to abandon her domestic habits and interior for as long as she was required to do so, and to resume them whenever it might suit Lilian’s convenience. And all because Lilian had been beautiful and successful, and would be beautiful and successful once more!
"You must come to-night, will you?" Lilian insisted, transformed in a moment into the spoilt and exacting queen.
"I do so want to talk to you," Lilian went on. "I’ve had nobody to talk to for--I mean like you. D’you know, Felix would have been alive now if it hadn’t been for me." She burst into tears, and then, recovering, began an interminable detailed recital of events on the Riviera, coupled with a laudation of Felix. She revelled in it, and was shameless, well aware that Gertrude would defend her against herself. The relief which she felt was intense.
At the end of half an hour, when the torrent had slackened, Gertrude said:
"I really think I’d better be going now. What time would you like me to come to-night? I’m quite free because I’m not taking night duty this week. It’s Milly’s week." And as she was leaving she turned back rather nervously to the bed. "D’you mind me suggesting one thing? I wouldn’t have you over-tire yourself; but if you could just show yourself at the office, I feel it would be such a good thing for all of us. The girls would understand then who the new employer is. Some of them are very stupid, you know. If you could just show yourself--a quarter of an hour. It’s for your own sake, dear."