“Was Annie Evans, sir.”
“And her age?”
“She was just, by her own statement, turned twenty-three.”
“You have communicated with her relations?”
“No, indeed. She never referred to any, and I have no means of finding them out. Annie was a very reserved girl.”
“But surely, when you engaged her——”
“I did so by advertisement, sir, through the Ladies’ Times newspaper. We were in immediate need of an under-housemaid, and there was a difficulty about local girls. I put an advertisement in the paper, as I had often done before, preferring that method to the agencies, and she answered it. That was about two months ago.”
“And her former employer?”
“That was a Mrs. Wilson, sir. She had gone to New Zealand, and left a written character with Annie. It was quite against my custom to take a servant with only a written character; but in this instance I was persuaded to break my rule, the character given was so excellent, and the girl herself so modest and attractive.”
“H’m! Then you saw her before engaging her?”