Cranford

d-fashioned style, to spend a day at his house-a long June day-for it was June now. He named that he ha

the idea of any impropriety in her going with two other ladies to see her old lover. Then came a more serious difficulty. She did not think Deborah would have liked her to go. This took us half a day's goo

here, after much hesitation, we chose out three caps to be sent home and tri

probable that many of her innocent girlish imaginations had clustered. It was a long drive there, through paved jolting lanes. Miss Matilda sat bolt upright, and looked wistfully out of the windows as we drew near the end of our journey. The aspect of the country was quiet and pastoral. Woodley stoo

nk," said Miss Pole, who was afraid

ut the garden. My request evidently pleased the old gentleman, who took me all round the place and showed me his six-and-twenty cows, named after the different letters of the alphabet. As we went along, he surprised me occasionally by repeating apt and beautiful quotations from the poets, ranging easily from Shakespeare and George Herbert to those of our own day. He did this as naturally as if he were thinking aloud, and their true and beautiful words were t

of a kitchen, which were evidently never used, the real cooking-place being at some distance. The room in which we were expected to sit was a stiffly-furnished, ugly apartment; but that in which we did sit was what Mr Holbrook called the counting-house, where he paid his labourers their weekly wages at a great desk near the door. The rest of the pretty sitting-room-looking into the orchard, and all cov

not to have much time for reading

oom!" said Miss

ce!" said I, aloud,

black leather, three-cornered chairs? I like it better than the best

leasant, or home-like; so, while we were at dinner, the servant-girl dusted an

Mr Holbrook was going to make some apology

ether you like n

all!" said

o ball, no beef'; and always began dinner with broth. Then we had suet puddings, boiled in the broth with the beef: and then the meat itself. If we did not sup our broth, we had no ball, which w

ns of rice after her previous feast with the Ghoul. Miss Pole sighed over her delicate young peas as she left them on one side of her plate untasted, for they would drop between the prongs. I looked at my host: the peas were going wholesale into his capacious mouth, shovelled up by h

ed her to fill the bowl. This was a compliment to a lady in his youth; but it was rather inappropriate to propose it as an honour to Miss Matty, who had been trained by her sister to hold smoking of every ki

ty softly, as we settled ourselves in the counting-house. "

said Miss Pole, looking round t

t Dr Johnson's rooms," said Miss Matty.

eader; but I am afraid he has got into

ould call him eccentric; very clever

obliged to take to see after his men. He strode along, either wholly forgetting my existence, or soothed into silence by his pipe-and yet it was not silence exactly. He walked before me with a stooping gait, his hands clasped behind him; and, as some tree or cl

s his dark-green

me or not; but I put in an assenting "wonderful," although I knew nothing about

oems in Blackwood, I set off within an hour, and walked seven miles to Misselton (for th

? thought I. He is v

hey, I say?" repea

, sir," said I, with th

ash-buds in March. And I've lived all my life in the country; more shame for me not to know. Black: they a

erwards said it was because she had got to a difficult part of her crochet, and wanted to count her stitches without having to talk. Whatever he had proposed would have been right to Miss Matty; although she did fall sound asleep within five min

pretty

it's beautiful!

er word. "It is so like that beautiful poem of Dr Johnson's my sister us

ean, ma'am? Wha

the name of it was; but it was written by Dr Johnson, and was ver

ectively. "But I don't know Dr John

er we had lost sight of the old house among the trees her sentiments towards the master of it were gradually absorbed into a distressing wonder as to whether Martha had broken her word, and seized on the opportunity

evening in such a thin shawl! It's no better than

for her, for she was usually gentle-"My age! Why, ho

short of sixty: but folks' looks is often

robably the remembrance of her youth had come very vividly before her this d

mpathy in her early love, that she had shut it up close in her heart; and it was only by a sort of watching, which I coul

y day, and sat near the window, in spite of her rheumatism

t, as he sat with his head bent down, whistling, after we had repl

commands for Paris? I am go

" we both

go; and I think if I don't go soon, I mayn't go at all; so

tonished that we h

the room, he turned back, wi

ning at my house." He tugged away at a parcel in his coat-pocket. "Good-bye, miss," said he; "good-bye, Matty! take care of

n't believe frogs will agree with him; he used to have to be very car

tress, and to let me know if she thought that Miss Matilda was not so well; in which case

ad a note to say her mistress was "very low and sadly off her food"; and the account made me

impromptu visit, for I had only been able to give a day's notice. Miss

have a private

been so poorly?" I asked, as

been, that she went into this moping way. I thought she was tired, and it would go off with a night'

to think she has so faithful a servant about h

s plenty to eat and drink, and no more work b

hat, M

given my word, and I'll stick to it; or else this is just the house for missus never to be the wiser if they did come: and it's such a capable kitchen-there's such dark corners in it-I'd be bound to hide any one. I counted up last Sunday night-for I'll not deny I was crying because I had to shut the door in Jem Hearn's face, and he'

ook her completely by surprise, for she had

to live. Poor Thomas! that journey to Paris was quite too much for him. His housekeeper says he has hardly ever been round his fields since, but just sits with his hands on his knees in

?" asked I-a new light as to the cause

t her know a fortnight ago, or more, when first I

effort to her; and, as if to make up for some reproachful feeling against her late sister, Miss Jenkyns, which had been troubling her all the afternoon, and for which she now felt penitent, she kept telling me how good and how clever Deborah was in her youth; how she used to settle what gowns they were to wear at all the parties (faint, ghostly ideas of grim parties, far away in the distance, when Miss Matty and Miss Pole were young!); and how Deborah and her mother had started the benefit society for the poor,

e; in fact, from the account of the previous day, it was only what we had to expect. Miss Pole kept c

l! And he might have lived this dozen years if he had not gone

o nervously; so I said what I really felt; and after a call of some duration-all the time of which I

brook again, although the book he gave her lies with her Bible on the little table by her bedside. She did not think I heard her when

rs widows' c

at style; not widows', of course,

g of the tremulous motion of head and hands

h, Miss Matilda was very silent and thoughtful; after prayers

he made so long a pause that Martha, to remind her of h

-and-twenty last third o

a young man, and tell me, and I find he is respectable, I have no objection to his coming to see you once a week. God forbid!" said she in a low voice, "that I

e in his stocking-feet, please, ma'am; and if you'll ask about him to-morrow morning, every one will

startled, she submit