Mrs. Butterworth’s Housemaid

    Martha was something of a snob. To see that you only have to observe how she looked down her nose at the raggedy man stood on the doorstep, and later when Mrs Butterworth was entertaining that same man in her home. However that snobbish attitude appears to have rubbed off by the time she encounters Number 6 for a second time, but in The Village. Number 36’s weekly allowance had been all used up, and she wanted to buy a bag of sweets, seeing as she couldn’t go a day without them. Was that through conditioning, or did Martha genuinely have a sweet tooth? The Number 6 bought Number 36 a bag of sweets, he probably recognised her as Martha, once Mrs Butterworth’s-Number 2’s house maid, and perhaps felt sorry for her. One could imagine that Martha’s attitude towards Number 6 would alter, after all he had shown her an act of kindness. And he might have recognised that  she was in the same predicament as himself. Worse, that Martha was in The Village through no fault of her own.

   It was suggested by a good friend, that Number 36 isn’t Martha, but Number 36’s twin. Well they say we all have a doppelganger somewhere in the world. Then on the other hand, perhaps Number 36 was taken from The Village to London in order to enact the role of Mrs. Butterworth's housemaid. Then when the London episode of ‘Many Happy Returns’ was completed, Martha-Number 36 was returned to The Village.

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