Rose, the head houseparlourmaid, is shocked when Alfred, the Bellamys' former footman, turns up at Eaton Place one night. He claims he's been sacked by his former employer and is homeless. She agrees to hide him in one of the basement rooms, but is horrified when it later transpires Alfred is actually on the run from the police having murdered his previous employer. After taking Edward hostage in the coal cellar, Alfred is arrested and eventually hanged for murder. The following year, Rose briefly becomes engaged to an Australian sheep-farmer called Gregory Wilmot whom she meets on an omnibus. She agrees to move to Australia with him, but at embarkation becomes frightened of making such a leap, and changes her mind, deciding to remain in the life she knows at Eaton Place, a plot line that echoes the story "Eveline" in James Joyce's "Dubliners".