Cranford; for, as we did not read much, or
walk much, I found it a capital time to get
through my work. One of Miss Pole's stories
related to the love affair I am coming to;—
gradually, not in a hurry, for we are never in a
hurry at Cranford.

Presently, the time arrived when I was to
remove to Miss Matilda's house. I found her
timid and anxious about the arrangements for
my comfort. Many a time, while I was
unpacking, did she come backwards and
forwards to stir the fire, which burned all the
worse for being so frequently poked.

"Have you drawers enough, dear?" asked
she. "I don't know exactly how my sister
used to arrange them. She had capital
methods. I am sure she would have trained
a servant in a week to make a better fire than
this, and Fanny has been with me four
months."

This subject of servants was a standing grievance,
and I could not wonder much at it; for
if gentlemen were scarce, and almost unheard
of in the "genteel society" of Cranford, they
or their counterparts—handsome young men
—abounded in the lower classes. The pretty
neat servant-maids had their choice of
desirable "followers;" and their mistresses,
without having the sort of mysterious dread of
men and matrimony that Miss Matilda had,
might well feel a little anxious, lest the heads
of their comely maids should be turned by the
joiner, or the butcher, or the gardener; who
were obliged, by their callings, to come to the
house; and who, as ill-luck would have it,
were, generally handsome and unmarried.
Fanny's lovers, if she had any—and Miss
Matilda suspected her of so many flirtations,
that, if she had not been very pretty, I should
have doubted her having one—were a constant
anxiety to her mistress. She was forbidden,
by the articles of her engagement, to have
"followers;" and though she had answered
innocently enough, doubling up the hem of
her apron as she spoke, "Please, ma'am,
I never had more than one at a time,"
Miss Matey prohibited that one. But a
vision of a man seemed to haunt the
kitchen. Fanny assured me that it was all
fancy; or else I should have said myself
that I had seen a man's coat-tails whisk into
the scullery once, when I went on an errand
into the store-room at night; and another
evening, when our watches having stopped, I
went to look at the clock, there was a very
odd appearance, singularly like a young man
squeezed up between the clock and the back
of the open kitchen-door; and I thought
Fanny snatched up the candle very hastily,
so as to throw the shadow on the clock-face,
while she very positively told me the time
half-an-hour too early, as we found out
afterwards by the church-clock. But I did not
add to Miss Matey's anxieties by naming my
suspicions, especially as Fanny said to me, the
next day, that it was such a queer kitchen
for having odd shadows about it, she really
was almost afraid to stay; "for you know,
Miss," she added, "I don't see a creature from
six o'clock tea, till Missus rings the bell for
prayers at ten."

However, it so fell out that Fanny had to
leave; and Miss Matilda begged me to stay
and "settle her" with the new maid; to
which I consented, after I had heard from my
father that he did not want me at home.
The new servant was a rough, honest-looking
country-girl, who had only lived in a farm
place before; but I liked her looks when she
came to be hired; and I promised Miss
Matilda to put her in the ways of the house.
These said ways were religiously such as Miss
Matilda thought her sister would approve.
Many a domestic rule and regulation had
been a subject of plaintive whispered murmur,
to me, during Miss Jenkyns's life; but
now that she was gone, I do not think that
even I, who was a favourite, durst have
suggested an alteration. To give an instance:
we constantly adhered to the forms which
were observed, at meal times, in "my father
the Rector's house." Accordingly, we had
always wine and dessert; but the decanters
were only filled when there was a party; and
what remained was seldom touched, though
we had two wine glasses apiece every day
after dinner, until the next festive occasion
arrived; when the state of the remainder wine
was examined into, in a family council. The
dregs were often given to the poor; but
occasionally, when a good deal had been left at
the last party (five months ago, it might be,) it
was added to some of a fresh bottle, brought
up from the cellar. I fancy poor Captain
Brown did not much like wine; for I noticed
he never finished his first glass, and most
military men take several. Then, as to our
dessert, Miss Jenkyns used to gather currants
and gooseberries for it herself, which I
sometimes thought would have tasted better fresh
from the trees; but then, as Miss Jenkyns
observed, there would have been nothing for
dessert in summer-time. As it was, we felt
very genteel with our two glasses apiece, and
a dish of gooseberries at the top, of currants
and biscuits at the sides, and two decanters at
the bottom. When oranges came in, a curious
proceeding was gone through. Miss Jenkyns
did not like to cut the fruit; for, as she
observed, the juice all ran out nobody knew
where; sucking (only I think she used some
more recondite word) was in fact the only
way of enjoying oranges; but then there was
the unpleasant association with a ceremony
frequently gone through by little babies; and
so, after dessert, in orange season, Miss Jenkyns
and Miss Matey used to rise up, possess
themselves each of an orange in silence, and
withdraw to the privacy of their own rooms, to
indulge in sucking oranges.

I had once or twice tried, on such occasions,
to prevail on Miss Matey to stay; and
had succeeded in her sister's life-time. I held
up a screen, and did not look, and, as she