Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/142

110 fresh payments are required for this, but the money you have paid at first is never returned to you whether you are ultimately suited or not.

Well, after one or two disappointments, we succeeded in getting a good-natured and willing servant who joined us forthwith. In the meantime the cook, whom we had brought with us when coming to the new house, had been fretting and grumbling, had taken a drop too much, and had at last cleared out bag and baggage, much to our relief. To get a new cook on a moment's notice is not an easy thing in London, and for some days we were regaled with dinners of which the less I speak the better. The Registry office process had again to be gone through until we suited ourselves to a steady cook who knew something of her trade.

If servants give you trouble in London, trades-people give you none, and the arrangement with them is a very convenient one. Before you have removed to your new house, the trades-people of the neighbourhood manage to know of your expected arrival, and they try hard to secure your custom. The butchers, the bakers, the grocers, the fishmongers, the fruiterers, and green grocers and the dairies of the neighbourhood send you their cards and call on you and beg you for your custom. After a little inquiry you make your selections, and the trades-people at once begin to supply you with the various articles. The butcher's man comes to you every morning to inquire what meat and how much you will require for the day, and brings the same at the stated hour. The milkman brings the quantity of milk you require every morning,