108. An Archangel Called Ivan Read Online Free PDF Page A

responsibility, but so far with your help everything has run smoothly and I am very grateful.”
    Arliva held out her hand and the Bank Manager took it.
    “All I can say, Miss Ashdown, is that your father would be proud of you, especially if he read of the praise and admiration you are receiving in the Social columns of the newspapers.”
    “I have often wondered if they would say half as much if I was not overshadowed by my father’s money and brilliance.”
    The Bank Manager knew that there was no answer to this and he merely bowed her to the door.
    As she was being driven away in the carriage, she thought that Charles and Betty would be hysterical when the money arrived.
    They would now be able to marry each other and would never know that it was just by chance she had been in the right place to eavesdrop on their conversation.
    She then told the coachman to drive her to a large shop in Oxford Street, where she occasionally bought small items, but not the smart clothes in which she was so much admired as a debutante .
    He put her down at the front door.
    She walked through the shop without stopping and out through the door at the other end of it that led into Cavendish Square.
    She walked across the Square to where at the other side there was an Employment Agency for servants.
    It was, she knew, where her aunt’s housekeeper engaged servants when necessary and the butler had quite recently taken on a new footman from there.
    The Agency was on the first floor above a shop that catered for garden implements.
    There was no one on the stairs and Arliva stopped to put on a pair of large dark spectacles that she had worn last year in Switzerland, when she had found the blazing sun on the snow almost overpowering.
    She took off the pearls she was wearing round her neck that had belonged to her mother and slipped them into her handbag.
    She was aware that now she looked very ordinary.
    She had in fact chosen, rather to the surprise of her lady’s maid, a dark suit which so far she had not worn in the summer.
    She had deliberately chosen to wear a very plain hat that was ornamented with two small feathers on one side of it.
    She now deftly removed the feathers and put them into her handbag.
    She then walked up the stairs.
    As it was quite early, there were not many servants waiting to hear of a new job and there were only two boys present, who obviously wanted to be employed in a stable.
    She saw at the far end of the room a woman at a very tall desk and walked towards her.
    “Good morning, Mrs. Hill,” she said. “I have been told by so many people how efficient you are at finding work for those who need it and I am hoping that you will be able to oblige me.”
    The woman, who was elderly, then adjusted her spectacles and looked at Arliva critically.
    “I am always very glad to hear a kind word about myself,” she answered. “They always say that they could not manage in Mayfair without me.”
    “That is exactly what they do say,” Arliva replied. “Therefore I am sure that you will be able to find me a place as a Governess.”
    “Have you had any experience?” Mrs. Hill asked.
    “I have, as it happens, travelled over a great deal of the world and I speak five different languages, but I prefer, if possible, to be with young children. I really need a rest from my last situation which was very strenuous.”
    “I suppose you have references?”
    Arliva opened her handbag.
    She had actually written them before she went to bed last night knowing that they would be the first thing she would be asked for.
    She had been delighted to find that in her father’s writing table, which she had looked in before she went up to bed, that there were a number of letters from people of distinction.
    It had been quite easy to erase the few words of goodwill and keep the signature on them.
    She had three letters with her from titled people and two of them lived in the North of England, who were not likely to come into contact with