54 Agatha Christie
herself. "But there again, no one would take me without experience. I could go somewhere, I dare say, as a Willing
Young Girl--but they don't pay willing young girls anything
to speak of."
She sighed again, propped the paper up in front of her, and attacked the poached egg with all the vigour of healthy
youth.
When the last mouthful had been despatched, she turned the paper and studied the Agony and Personal column while
she drank her tea. The Agony column was always the last
hope.
Had she but possessed a couple of thousand pounds, the thing would have been easy enough. There were at least
seven unique opportunities--all yielding not less than three
thousand a year. Jane's lip curled a little.
"If I had two thousand pounds," she murmured, "it wouldn't be easy to separate from it."
She cast her eyes rapidly down to the bottom of the column and ascended with the ease born of long practice.
There was the lady who gave such wonderful prices for castoff clothing. "Ladies' wardrobes inspected at their own
dwellings." There were the gentlemen who bought ANYTHINGbut
principally TEETH. There were ladies of title
going abroad who would dispose of their furs at a ridiculous
figure. There was the distressed clergyman and the hardworking
widow, and the disabled officer, all needing sums
varying from fifty pounds to two thousand. And then suddenly
Jane came to an abrupt halt. She put down her teacup
and read the advertisement through again.
"There's a catch in it, of course," she murmured. "There always is a catch in these sort of things. I shall have to be
careful. But still--"
The advertisement which so intrigued Jane Cleveland ran as follows:
If a young lady of twenty-five to thirty years of age, eyes dark blue, very fair hair, black lashes and
brows, straight nose, slim figure, height five feet seven
inches, good mimic and able to speak French, will
call at 7 Endersleigh Street, between 5 and 6 P.M.,
she will hear of something to her advantage.
JANE IN SEARCH OF A JOB 55
"Guileless Gwendolen, or why girls go wrong," murmured Jane. "I shall certainly have to be careful. But there
are too many specifications, really, for that sort of thing. I
wonder now... Let us overhaul the catalogue."
She proceeded to do so.
"Twenty-five to thirty--I'm twenty-six. Eyes dark blue, that's right. Hair very fair--black lashes and brows--all
O.K. Straight nose? Ye-es--straight enough, anyway. It
doesn't hook or turn up. And I've got a slim figure--slim
even for nowadays. I'm only five feet six inches--but I
could wear high heels. I am a good mimic--nothing wonderful,
but I can copy people's voices, and I speak French
like an angel or a Frenchwoman. In fact, I'm absolutely the
goods. They ought to tumble over themselves with delight
when I turn up. Jane Cleveland, go in and win."
Resolutely Jane tore out the advertisement and placed it in her handbag. Then she demanded her bill, with a new
briskness in her voice.
At ten minutes to five Jane was reconnoitring in the neighbourhood of Endersleigh Street. Endersleigh Street itself
is a small street sandwiched between two larger streets
in the neighbourhood of Oxford Circus. It is drab, but respectable.
No. 7 seemed in no way different from the neighbouring houses. It was composed like they were of offices. But
looking up at it, it dawned upon Jane for the first time that
she was not the only blue-eyed, fair-haired, straight-nosed,
slim-figured gift of between twenty-five and thirty years of
age. London was evidently full of such girls, and forty or
fifty of them at least were grouped outside No.7 Endersleigh
Street.
"Competition," said Jane. "I'd better join the queue quickly."
She did so, just as three more girls turned the corner of the street. Others followed them. Jane amused herself by
taking stock of her immediate neighbours. In each case she
managed to find something wrong--fair eyelashes instead
of dark, eyes more grey than blue, fair hair that owed its
fairness to art and not to nature, interesting variations in
noses, and figures that only an all-embracing charity could
have described as slim. Jane's spirits rose.
56 Agatha Christie
"I believe I've got as good an all-around chance as anyone,"
she murmured to herself. "I wonder what it's all
about? A beauty chorus, I hope."
The queue was moving slowly but steadily forward. Presently
a second stream of girls began, issuing from inside
the house. Some of them tossed their heads, some of them
smirked.
"Rejected," said Jane with glee. "I hope to goodness they
won't be full up before I get in."
And still the queue of girls moved forward. There were
anxious glances in tiny mirrors, and a frenzied powdering
of noses. Lipsticks were brandished freely.
"I wish I had a smarter hat," said Jane to herself sadly.
At last it was her turn. Inside the door of the house was
a glass door at one side, with the legend Messrs. Cuthbertsons
inscribed on it. It was through this glass door that
the applicants were passing one by one. Jane's turn came.
She drew a deep breath and entered.
Inside was an outer office, obviously intended for clerks.
At the end was another glass door. Jane was directed to
pass through this, and did so. She found herself in a smaller
room. There was a big desk in it, and behind the desk was
a keen-eyed man of middle age with a thick, rather foreign-looking
moustache. His glance swept over Jane, then he
pointed to a door on the left.
"Wait in there, please," he said crisply.
Jane obeyed. The apartment she entered was already
occupied. Five girls sat there, all very upright and all glaring
at each other. It was clear to Jane that she had been included
among the likely candidates, and her spirits rose. Nevertheless,
she was forced to admit that these five girls were
equally eligible with herself as far as the terms of the ad~
vertisement went.
The time passed. Streams of girls were evidently passing
through the inner office. Most of them were dismissed
through another door giving on the corridor, but every now
and then a recruit arrived to swell the select assembly. At
half-past six there were fourteen girls assembled there.
Jane heard a murmur of voices from the inner office,
and then the foreigh-looking gentleman, whom she had nicknamed
in her mind "the Colonel" owing to the military
JANE IN SEARCH Of A JOB 57
character of his moustaches, appeared in the doorway.
"I will see you ladies one at a time, if you please," he
announced. "In the order in which you arrived, please."
Jane was, of course, the sixth on the list. Twenty minutes
elapsed before she was called in. "The Colonel" was standing
with his hands behind his back. He put her through a
rapid catechism, tested her knowledge of French, and measured
her height.
"It is possible, mademoiselle," he Sai
d in French, "that
you may suit. I do not know. But it is possible."
"What is this post, may I ask?" said Jane bluntly.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"That I cannot tell you as yet. If you are chosen--then
you shall know."
"This seems very mysterious," objected Jane. "I couldn't
possibly take up anything without knowing all about it. Is
it connected with the stage, may I ask?',
"The stage? Indeed, no."
"Oh!" said Jane, rather taken aback.
He was looking at her keenly.
"You have intelligence, yes? Anti discretion?"
"I've quantities of intelligence and discretion," said Jane
calmly. "What about the pay?"
"The pay will amount to two thousand pounds--for a fortnight's work."
"Oh!" said Jane faintly.
She was too taken aback by the naunificence of the sum
named to recover all at once.
The Colonel resumed speaking.
"One other young lady I have already selected. You and
she are equally suitable. There may be ol:hers I have not yet
seen. I will give you instructions as to your further pro
ceedings. You know Harridge's Hotel?"
Jane gasped. Who in England did not know Harridge's
Hotel, that famous hostelry situated tnoclestly in a bystreet
of Mayfair, where notabilities and royalties arrived and departed
as a matter of course? Only this morning Jane had
read of the arrival of the Grand Duchess Iauline of Ostrova.
She had come over to open a big bazaar in aid of Russian
refugees, and was, of course, staying at Harridge's.
"Yes," said Jane, in answer to the Cclonel's question.
58
Agatha Christie
"Very good. Go there. Ask for Count Strepfitch. Send
up your card--you have a card?"
Jane produced one. The Colonel took it from her and
inscribed in the corner a minute P. He handed the card back
to her.
"That ensures that the count will see you. He will understand
that you come from me. The final decision lies
with him-,and another. If he considers you suitable, he
will explain matters to you, and you can accept or decline
his propo, sal. Is' that satisfactory?"
"Perfectly satisfactory," said Jane.
"So far," she murmured to herself as she emerged into
the street, "I can't see the catch. And yet, there must be
one. There's no such thing as money for nothing. It must
be crime! There's nothing else left."
Her spirits rose. In moderation Jane did not object to
crime. The papers had been full lately of the exploits of
various girl bandits. Jane had seriously thought of becoming
one if all else failed.
She entered the exclusive portals of Harridge's with slight
trepidation. More than ever, she wished that she had a new
hat.
But she walked bravely up to the bureau and produced
her card and asked for Count Streptitch without a shade of
hesitation in her manner. She fancied that the clerk looked
at her rather curiously. He took the card, however, and gave
it to a small page boy with some low-voiced instructions
which Jane did not catch. Presently the page returned, and Jane was invited to accompany him. They went up in the
lift and along a corridor to some big double doors where
the page knocked. A moment later Jane found herself in a big room, facing a tall thin man with a fair beard, who was
holding her card in a languid white hand.
"Miss Jane Cleveland," he read slowly. "I am Count
Streptitch."
His lips parted suddenly in what was presumably intended
to be a smile, disclosing two rows of white even
teeth. But no effect of merriment was obtained.
"I understand that you applied in answer to our advertisement,''
continued the count. "The good Colonel Kranin
sent you on here."
JANE IN SEARCH OF A JOB
"He was a colonel," thought lane, pleased with her
spicacity, but she merely bowed her head.
"You will pardon me if I ask you a few questions.9"
He did not wait for a reply, but proceeded to put Jan through a catechism very similar to that of Colonel Kranin
Her replies seemed to satisfy him. He nodded his head one
or twice.
"I will ask you now, mademoiselle, to walk to the doo
and back again slowly."
"Perhaps they want me to be a mannequin," thought Jane
as she complied. "But they wouldn't pay two thousan
pounds to a mannequin. Still, I suppose I'd better not as
questions yet awhile."
Count Streptitch was frowning. He tapped on the tabl
with his white fingers. Suddenly he rose, and opening th
door of an adjoining room, he spoke to someone inside.
He returned to his seat, and a short middle-aged lad
came through the door, closing it behind her. She was plum' and extremely ugly, but had nevertheless the air of being
person of importance.
"Well, Anna Michaelovna," said the count. "What d,
you think of her?"
The lady looked Jane up and down much as though, th,
girl had been a waxwork at a show. She made no pretenc
of any greeting.
"She might do," she said at length. "Of actual likene,
in the real sense of the word, there is very little. But th
figure and the colouring are very good, better than any
the others. What do you think of it, Feodor Alexandro
itch?"
"I agree with you, Anna Michaelovna."
"Does she speak French?"
"Her French is excellent."
Jane felt more and more of a dummy. Neither of thcs
strange people appeared to remember that she was a huma being.
"But will she be discreet?" asked the lady, frownin
heavily at the girl.
"This is the Princess Poporensky," said Count Streptitc
to Jane in French. "She asks whether you can be discreet?
Jane addressed her reply to the princess.
60
Agatha Christie
"Until I have had the position explained to me, I can
hardly make promises."
"It is just what she says there, the little one," remarked
the lady. "I think she is intelligent, Feodor Alexandrovitch--more
intelligent than the others. Tell me, little one,
have you also courage?"
"I don't know," said Jane, puzzled. "I don't particularly
like being hurt, but I can bear it."
"Ah! That is not what I mean. You do not mind danger,
no?"
"Oh I" said Jane. "Danger! That's all right. I like danger."
"And you are poor? You would like to earn much money?"
"Try me," said Jane with something approaching enthusiasm.
Count Streptitch and Princess Poporensky exchanged
glances. Then, simultaneously, they nodded.
"Shall I explain matters, Anna Michaelovna?" the former
asked.
The princess shook her head.
"Her Highness wishes to do that herself."
"It is unnecessary--and unwise."
"Nevertheless those are her commands. I was to bring
the girl in as soon as you had done with her."
Streptitch shrugged his shoulders. Clearly he was not
pleased. Equ
ally clearly he had no intention of disobeying
the edict. He turned to Jane.
"The Princess Poporensky will present you to Her Highness
the Grand Duchess Pauline. Do not be alarmed."
Jane was not in the least alarmed. She was delighted at
the idea of being presented to a real live grand duchess.
There was nothing of the Socialist about Jane. For the moment
she had even ceased to worry about her hat.
The Princess Poporensky led the way, waddling along
with a gait that she managed to invest with a certain dignity
in spite of adverse circumstances. They passed through the
adjoining room, which was a kind of antechamber, and the
princess knocked upon a door in the farther wall. A voice
from inside replied and the princess opened the door and
passed in, Jane close upon her heels.
"Let me present to you, madame," said the princess in
a solemn voice, "Miss Jane Cleveland."
.IANE IN SEARCH OF A JOB
61
A young woman who had been sitting in a big armchair at the other end of the room jumped up and ran forward.
She stared fixedly at Jane for a minute or two, and then
laughed merrily.
"But this is splendid, Anna," she cried. "I never imagined we should succeed so well. Come, let us see ourselves side
by side."
Taking Jane's arm, she drew the girl across the room, pausing before a full-length mirror which hung on the wall.
"You see?" she cried delightedly. "It is a perfect match!" Already, with her first glance at the Grand Duchess Pauline,
Jane had begun to understand. The Grand Duchess
was a young woman perhaps a year or two older than Jane.
She had the same shade of fair hair, and the same slim
figure. She was, perhaps, a shade taller. Now that they
stood side by side, the likeness was very apparent. Detail
for detail, the colouring was almost exactly' the same.
The Grand Duchess clapped her hands. She seemed an extremely cheerful young woman.
"Nothing could be better," she declared. "You must congratulate Feodor Alexandrovitch for me, Anna. He has indeed
done well."
"As yet, mad-ane," murmured the princess in a low voice, "this young woman does not know what is required of her."
"True," said the Grand Duchess, becoming somewhat calmer in manner. "I forgot. Well, I will enlighten her.
The Golden Ball and Other Stories Page 8