Cranford, Chapter 2 - Captain Brown

Relax and enjoy listening to this second chapter of Elizabeth Gaskell's classic novel, which deals with the Brown family: the Captain and his two daughters. Two deaths occur in this chapter so please don't listen if you think this may upset you. You can pick up the story again in Chapter 3: These chapters stand alone as individual sketches of small-town Victorian life.

If you are happy to listen, you will enjoy hearing how Miss Matty, Miss Pole, and the narrator rally round to help, how Miss Jenkyns comes good, and how kind the townspeople are to one another. Even in the thick of tragic events, Gaskell introduces notes of humor and describes examples of human fallibility to make us smile.

For more gently humorous writing you might like Ted the Shed, also available on Free Tracks.

Transcript

Hello there,

It's Mandy here.

Thanks for joining me this evening and welcome back to Cranford,

Victorian society based on Knutsford,

Where the author Elizabeth Gaskell was brought up.

Tonight we're going to be listening to chapter two,

The Captain.

But before I begin,

Please go ahead and make yourself really comfortable.

Settle down into the surface that you happen to be sitting or lying on and relax your hands.

That's it.

Relax your jaw.

That's lovely.

So if you're sitting or lying comfortably,

I'll begin.

The Captain.

It was impossible to live a month at Cranford and not know the daily habits of each resident.

And long before my visit was ended,

I knew much concerning the whole brown trio.

There was nothing new to be discovered respecting their poverty,

For they had spoken simply and openly about that from the very first.

They made no mystery of the necessity for their being economical.

All that remained to be discovered was the Captain's infinite kindness of heart and the various modes in which,

Unconsciously to himself,

He manifested it.

Some little anecdotes were talked about for some time after they occurred.

As we didn't read much,

And as all the ladies were pretty well suited with servants,

There was a dearth of subjects for conversation.

We therefore discussed the circumstance of the Captain taking a poor old woman's dinner out of her hands one very slippery Sunday.

He had met her returning from the bakehouse as he came from church and noticed her precarious footing.

And with the grave dignity with which he did everything,

He relieved her of her burden and steered along the street by her side,

Carrying her baked mutton and potatoes safely home.

This was thought very eccentric and it was rather expected that he would pay a round of calls on the Monday morning to explain and apologise to the Cranford sense of propriety.

But he did no such thing and then it was decided that he was ashamed and was keeping out of sight.

In a kindly pity for him,

We began to say,

After all the Sunday morning's occurrence showed great goodness of heart and it was resolved that he should be comforted on his next appearance among us.

But lo,

He came down upon us untouched by any sense of shame,

Speaking loud and base as ever,

His head thrown back,

His wig as jaunty and well curled as usual.

And we were obliged to conclude he had forgotten all about Sunday.

Miss Pole and Miss Jenny Brown had set up a kind of intimacy on the strength of the Shetland wool and the new knitting stitches.

So it happened that when I went to visit Miss Pole,

I saw more of the Browns than I had done while staying with Miss Jenkins,

Who had never got over what she called Captain Brown's disparaging remarks upon Dr Johnson as a writer of light and agreeable fiction.

I found that Miss Brown was seriously ill of some lingering incurable complaint,

The pain occasioned by which gave the uneasy expression to her face that I had taken for unmitigated crossness.

Cross too she was at times when the nervous irritability occasioned by her disease became past endurance.

Miss Jessie bore with her at these times even more patiently than she did with the bitter self upbraidings by which they were invariably succeeded.

Miss Brown used to accuse herself not merely of hasty and irritable temper,

But also of being the cause why her father and sister were obliged to pinch in order to allow her the small luxuries which were necessary in her condition.

She would so fain have made sacrifices for them and have lightened their cares that the original generosity of her disposition added acerbity to her temper.

All this was borne by Miss Jessie and her father with more than placidity,

With absolute tenderness.

I forgave Miss Jessie her singing out of tune and her juvenility of dress when I saw her at home.

I came to perceive that Captain Brown's dark brutus wig and padded coat,

Alas too often threadbare,

Were remnants of the military smartness of his youth which he now wore unconsciously.

He was a man of infinite resources gained in his barracks experience.

As he confessed no one could black his boots to please him except himself,

But indeed he was not above saving the little maid's servants labours in every way,

Knowing most likely that his daughter's illness made the place a hard one.

He endeavoured to make peace with Miss Jenkins soon after the memorable dispute I have named by a present of a wooden fire shovel,

His own making,

Having heard her say how much the grating of an iron one annoyed her.

She received the present with cool gratitude and thanked him formally.

When he was gone she bade me put it away in the lumber room,

Feeling probably that no present from a man who preferred Mr Boz to Dr Johnson could be less jarring than an iron fire shovel.

Such was the state of things when I left Cranford and went to Drumble.

I had,

However,

Several correspondents who kept me au fait as to the proceedings of the dear little town.

There was Miss Pole who was becoming as much absorbed in crochet as she had once been in knitting,

For at the end of every sentence of news came a fresh direction as to some crochet commission which I was to execute for her.

Miss Matilda Jenkins,

Who didn't mind being called Miss Matty when Miss Jenkins was not by,

Wrote nice kind rambling letters,

Now and then venturing into an opinion of her own,

But suddenly pulling herself up and either begging me not to name what she had said,

As Debra thought differently,

And she knew,

Or else putting in a postscript to the effect that,

Since writing the above,

She had been talking over the subject with Debra and was quite convinced that,

Etc,

Here probably followed a recantation of every opinion she had given in the letter.

Then came Miss Jenkins,

Deborah,

As she liked Miss Matty to call her,

Her father having once said that the Hebrew name ought to be so pronounced.

I secretly think she took the Hebrew prophetess for a modelling character and indeed she was not unlike the stern prophetess in some ways,

Making allowance of course for modern customs and difference in dress.

Miss Jenkins wore a cravat and a little bonnet like a jockey cap and altogether had the appearance of a strong-minded woman,

Though she would have despised the modern idea of women being equal to men.

Equal indeed,

She knew they were superior,

But to return to her letters,

Everything in them was stately and grand like herself.

I have been looking them over,

Dear Miss Jenkins,

How I honoured her,

And I will give an extract,

More especially because it relates to our friend Captain Brown.

The Honourable Mrs Jameson has only just quitted me,

And in the course of conversation she communicated to me the intelligence that she had yesterday received a call from her revered husband's kwandan friend,

Lord Morleverer.

You are not easily conjecture what brought his lordship within the precincts of our little town.

It was to see Captain Brown,

With whom it had been to see Captain Brown,

With whom it appears his lordship was acquainted in the plumed wars,

And who had the privilege of averting destruction from his lordship's head,

When some great peril was impending over it,

Off the misnomered Cape of Good Hope.

You know our friend the Honourable Mrs Jameson's deficiency in the spirit of innocent curiosity,

And you will therefore not be so much surprised when I tell you she was quite unable to disclose to me the exact nature of the peril in question.

I was anxious,

I confess,

To ascertain in what manner Captain Brown,

With his limited establishment,

Could receive so distinguished a guest,

And I discovered that his lordship retired to rest and,

Let us hope,

To refreshing slumbers at the Angel Hotel,

But shared the Brunonian meals during the two days that he honoured Cranford with his august presence.

Mrs Johnson,

Our civil butcher's wife,

Informs me that Miss Jessie purchased a leg of lamb,

But besides this I can hear of no preparation whatever to give a suitable reception to so distinguished a visitor.

Perhaps they entertained him with the feast of reason and the flow of soul,

And to us who are acquainted with Captain Brown's sad want of relish for the pure wells of English undefiled,

It may be a matter for congratulation that he has had the opportunity of improving his taste by holding converse with an elegant and refined member of the British aristocracy,

But from some mundane failings who is altogether free?

Miss Pole and Miss Matty wrote to me by the same post.

Such a piece of news as Lord Morleverer's visit was not to be lost on Cranford letter writers,

They made the most of it.

Miss Matty humbly apologised for writing at the same time as her sister,

Who was so much more capable than she to describe the honour done to Cranford,

But in spite of a little bad spelling,

Miss Matty's account gave me the best idea of the commotion occasioned by his lordship's visit after it had occurred.

For,

Except the people at the Angel,

The Browns,

Mrs Jameson and a little lad his lordship had sworn at for driving a dirty hoop against the aristocratic legs,

I couldn't hear of anyone with whom his lordship had held conversation.

My next visit to Cranford was in the summer.

There had been neither births,

Deaths nor marriages since I was there last.

Everybody lived in the same house and wore pretty nearly the same well-preserved old-fashioned clothes.

The greatest event was that Miss Jenkins had purchased a new carpet for the drawing room.

Oh,

The busy work Miss Matty and I had in chasing the sunbeams,

As they fell in an afternoon right down on this carpet through the blindless window.

We spread newspapers over the places and sat down to our book or our work,

And lo,

In a quarter of an hour the sun had moved and was blazing away on a fresh spot,

And down again we went on our knees to alter the position of the newspapers.

We were very busy too,

One whole morning before Miss Jenkins gave her party in following her directions and in cutting out and stitching together pieces of newspaper so as to form little paths to every chair set for the expected visitors,

Lest their shoes might dirty or defile the purity of the carpet.

Do you make paper paths for every guest to walk upon in London?

Captain Brown and Miss Jenkins were not very cordial to each other.

The literary dispute of which I had seen the beginning was raw,

The slightest touch on which made them wince.

It was the only difference of opinion they ever had,

But that difference was enough.

Miss Jenkins could not refrain from talking at Captain Brown,

And though he didn't reply,

He drummed with his fingers,

Which action she felt and resented as very disparaging to Dr Johnson.

He was rather ostentatious in his preference of the writings of Mr Boss,

Would walk through the streets so absorbed in them that he all but ran against Miss Jenkins,

And though his apologies were earnest and sincere,

And though he did not in fact do more than startle her and himself,

She owned to me she had rather he had knocked her down,

If he had only been reading a higher style of literature.

The poor brave captain,

He looked older and more worn,

And his clothes were very threadbare,

But he seemed as bright and cheerful as ever,

Unless he was asked about his daughter's health.

She suffers a great deal,

And she must suffer more.

We do what we can to alleviate her pain.

God's will be done.

He took off his hat at these last words.

I found from Miss Matty that everything had been done,

In fact.

A medical man of high repute in that country neighbourhood had been sent for,

And every injunction he had given was attended to,

Regardless of expense.

Miss Matty was sure they denied themselves many things in order to make the invalid comfortable,

But they never spoke about it,

And as for Miss Jessie,

I really think she's an angel,

Said poor Miss Matty,

Quite overcome,

To see her way of bearing with Miss Brown's crossness,

And the bright face she puts on after she's been sitting up the whole night,

And scolded above half of it,

Is quite beautiful.

Yet she looks as neat and as ready to welcome the captain at breakfast time,

As if she had been asleep in the queen's bed all night.

My dear,

You could never laugh at her prim little curls,

Or her pink bows again,

If you saw her as I have done.

I could only feel very penitent,

And greet Miss Jessie with double respect when I met her next.

She looked faded and pinched,

And her lips began to quiver,

As if she was very weak,

When she spoke of her sister.

But she brightened,

And sent back the tears that were glittering in her pretty eyes,

As she said,

But to be sure,

What a town Cranford is for kindness.

I don't suppose anyone has a better dinner than usual cooked,

But the best part of all comes in a little covered basin for my sister.

The poor people will leave their earliest vegetables at our door for her.

They speak short and gruff,

As if they were ashamed of it,

But I am sure it often goes to my heart to see their thoughtfulness.

The tears now came back and overflowed,

But after a minute or two she began to scold herself,

And ended by going away,

The same cheerful Miss Jessie as ever.

But why does not this Lord Morleverer do something for the man who saved his life,

Said I.

Why,

You see,

Unless Captain Brown has some reason for it,

He never speaks about being poor,

And he walked along by his lordship looking as happy and cheerful as a prince,

And as they never called attention to their dinner by apologies,

And as Miss Brown was better that day,

And all seemed bright,

I dare say his lordship never knew how much care there was in the background.

He did send game in the winter pretty often,

But now he has gone abroad.

I had often occasioned to notice the use that was made of fragments and small opportunities in Cranford,

The rose leaves that were gathered ere they fell to make into a potpourri for someone who had no garden,

The little bundles of lavender flowers sent to strew the drawers of some town dweller,

Or to burn in the chamber of some invalid.

Things that many would despise,

And actions which it seemed scarcely worthwhile to perform,

All were attended to in Cranford.

Miss Jenkins stuck an apple full of cloves to be heated and smelled pleasantly in Miss Brown's room,

And as she put in each clove she uttered a Johnsonian sentence.

Indeed,

She never could think of the Browns without talking Johnson,

And as they were seldom absent from her thoughts just then,

I heard many a rolling three-piled sentence.

Captain Brown called one day to thank Miss Jenkins for many little kindnesses which I didn't know until then that she had rendered.

He had suddenly become like an old man,

His deep bass voice had a quavering in it,

His eyes looked dim and the lines on his face were deep.

He did not,

Could not,

Speak cheerfully of his daughter's state,

But he talked with manly,

Pious resignation and not much.

Twice over he said,

What Jesse has been to us God only knows,

And after the second time he got up hastily,

Shook hands all round without speaking,

And left the room.

That afternoon we perceived little groups in the street,

All listening with faces aghast to some tale or other.

Miss Jenkins wondered what could be the matter for some time before she took the undignified step of sending Jenny out to inquire.

Jenny came back with a white face of terror.

Oh ma'am,

Oh Miss Jenkins ma'am,

Captain Brown is killed by them nasty cruel railroads,

And she burst into tears.

She along with many others had experienced the poor captain's kindness.

How,

Where,

When,

Good God,

Jenny don't waste time crying but tell us something.

Miss Matty rushed out into the street at once and collared the man who was telling the tale.

Come in,

Come to my sister at once,

Miss Jenkins,

The rector's daughter.

Oh man,

Man,

Say it is not true,

She cried,

As she brought the affrighted carter,

Sleeking down his hair into the drawing room,

Where he stood with his wet boots on the new carpet,

And no one regarded it.

Please mum,

It is true,

I see it myself,

And he shuddered at the recollection.

The captain was a reading some new book as he was deep in,

Awaiting for the downed train,

And there was a little lass as wanted to come to his mammy,

And gave its sister the slip,

And came toddling across the line,

And he looked up sudden at the sound of the train coming and see the child,

And he darted on the line and cotched it up,

But his foot slipped,

But his foot slipped,

And the train came over him in no time.

Oh lord,

Lord,

Mum,

It's quite true,

And they've come over to tell his daughters.

The child's safe though,

With only a bang on its shoulder as he threw it to its mammy.

Poor captain would be glad of that,

Mum,

Wouldn't he?

God bless him.

The great rough carter puckered up his manly face,

And turned away to hide his tears.

I turned to Miss Jenkins.

She looked very ill as if she were going to faint,

And signed me to open the window.

Matilda,

Bring me my bonnet.

I must go to those girls.

God pardon me if I've ever spoken contemptuously to the captain.

Miss Jenkins arrayed herself to go out,

Telling Miss Matilda to give the man a glass of wine.

While she was away,

Miss Mattie and I huddled over the fire,

Talking in a low and awestruck voice.

I know we cried quietly all the time.

Miss Jenkins came home in a silent mood,

And we durst not ask her many questions.

She told us that Miss Jessie had fainted,

And that she and Miss Pole had had some difficulty in bringing her round,

But that as soon as she recovered,

She begged one of them to go and sit with her sister.

Mr Hoggins says she cannot live many days,

And she shall be spared this shock,

Said Miss Jessie,

Shivering with feelings to which she dared not give way.

But how can you manage,

My dear?

Asked Miss Jenkins.

You cannot bear up.

She must see your tears.

God will help me.

I will not give way.

She was asleep when the news came.

She may be asleep yet.

She would be so utterly miserable,

Not merely at my father's death,

But to think of what would become of me.

She is so good to me.

She looked up earnestly in their faces with her soft true eyes,

And Miss Pole told Miss Jenkins afterwards that she could hardly bear it,

Knowing as she did,

How Miss Brown treated her sister.

However,

It was settled according to Miss Jessie's wish.

Miss Brown was to be told her father had been summoned to take a short journey on railway business.

They had managed it in some way.

Miss Jenkins could not say exactly how.

Miss Pole was to stop with Miss Jessie.

Mrs Jameson had sent to inquire,

And this was all we heard that night,

And a sorrowful night it was.

The next day,

A full account of the fatal accident was in the county paper which Miss Jenkins took in.

Her eyes were very weak,

She said,

And she asked me to read it.

When I came to the gallant gentleman was deeply engaged in the perusal of a number of pickwick which he had just received.

Miss Jenkins shook her head long and solemnly and then sighed out,

Poor dear infatuated man.

The corpse was to be taken from the station to the parish church,

There to be interred.

Miss Jessie had set her heart on following it to the grave,

And no dissuasives could alter her resolve.

Her restraint upon herself made her almost obstinate she resisted all Miss Pole's entreaties and Miss Jenkins' advice.

At last Miss Jenkins gave up the point,

And after a silence which I feared portended some deep displeasure against Miss Jessie,

Miss Jenkins said she should accompany the latter to the funeral.

It is not fit for you to go alone,

It would be against both propriety and humanity were I to allow it.

Miss Jessie seemed as if she didn't half like this arrangement,

But her obstinacy,

If she had any,

Had been exhausted in her determination to go to the interment.

She longed,

Poor thing,

I have no doubt,

To cry alone over the grave of the dear father to whom she had been all in all,

And to give way for one little half hour uninterrupted by sympathy and unobserved by friendship,

But it was not to be.

That afternoon Miss Jenkins sent out for a yard of black crepe and employed herself busily in trimming the little black silk bonnet I have spoken about.

When it was finished she put it on and looked at us for approbation,

Admiration she despised.

I was full of sorrow,

But by one of those whimsical thoughts which come unbidden into our heads in times of deepest grief,

I no sooner saw the bonnet than I was reminded of a helmet,

And in that hybrid bonnet,

Half helmet,

Half jockey cap,

Did Miss Jenkins attend Captain Brown's funeral,

And I believe supported Miss Jessie with a tender indulgent firmness which was invaluable,

Allowing her to weep her passionate fill before they left.

Miss Pole,

Miss Mattie and I meanwhile attended to Miss Brown,

And hard work we found it to relieve her querulous and never-ending complaints,

But if we were so weary and dispirited,

What must Miss Jessie have been?

Yet she came back almost calm as if she had gained a new strength.

She put off her morning dress and came in looking pale and gentle,

Thanking us each with a soft long pressure of the hand.

She could even smile,

A faint sweet wintry smile,

As if to reassure us of her power to endure,

But her look made our eyes fill suddenly with tears more than if she had cried outright.

It was settled that Miss Pole was to remain with her all the watching live long night,

And that Miss Mattie and I were to return in the morning to relieve them and give Miss Jessie the opportunity for a few hours of sleep,

But when the morning came Miss Jenkins appeared at the breakfast table equipped in her helmet bonnet and ordered Miss Mattie to stay at home as she meant to go and help to nurse.

She was evidently in a state of great friendly excitement which she showed by eating her breakfast standing and scolding the household all round.

No nursing,

No energetic strong-minded woman could help Miss Brown now.

There was that in the room as we entered which was stronger than us all and made us shrink into solemn awestruck helplessness.

Miss Brown was dying,

We hardly knew her voice,

It was so devoid of the complaining tone we had always associated with it.

Miss Jessie told me afterwards that it and her face too were just what they had been formerly when her mother's death left her the young anxious head of the family of whom only Miss Jessie survived.

She was conscious of her sister's presence though not I think of ours.

We stood a little behind the curtain,

Miss Jessie knelt with her face near her sister's in order to catch the last soft awful whispers.

Oh Jessie,

Jessie,

How selfish I have been.

God forgive me for letting you sacrifice yourself for me as you did.

I have so loved you and yet I have thought only of myself.

God forgive me.

Hush love,

Hush said Miss Jessie,

Sobbing.

And my father,

My dear dear father,

I will not complain now if God will give me the strength to be patient.

But oh Jessie,

Tell my father how I longed and yearned to see him at last and to ask his forgiveness.

He can never know now how I loved him,

Oh if I might but tell him before I die.

What a life of sorrow his has been and I have done so little to cheer him.

A light came into Miss Jessie's face.

Would it comfort you dearest to think that he does know?

Would it comfort you to know that his cares,

His sorrows,

Her voice quivered but she steadied it into calmness.

Mary,

He has gone before you to the place where the weary are at rest.

He knows now how you loved him.

A strange look which was not distress came over Miss Brown's face.

She didn't speak for some time but then we saw her lips form the words rather than heard the sound.

Father,

Mother,

Harry,

Archie.

Then as if it were a new idea,

Throwing a filmy shadow over her darkened mind.

But you will be alone Jessie.

Miss Jessie had been feeling this all during the silence I think,

For the tears rolled down her cheeks like rain at these words and she couldn't answer at first.

Then she put her hands together tight and lifted them up and said,

But not to us,

Though he slay me yet I will trust in him.

In a few moments more Miss Brown lay calm and still,

Never to sorrow or murmur more.

After this second funeral Miss Jenkins insisted that Miss Jessie should come to stay with her rather than go back to the desolate house,

Which in fact we learned from Miss Jessie must now be given up as she had not wherewithal to maintain it.

She had something above £20 a year besides the interest of the money for which the furniture would sell but she couldn't live upon that and so we talked over her qualifications for earning money.

I can sew neatly,

Said she,

And I like nursing.

I think too I could manage a house if anyone would try me as a housekeeper or I would go into a shop as saleswoman if they would have patience with me at first.

Miss Jenkins declared in an angry voice that she should do no such thing and talked to herself about some people having no idea of their rank as a captain's daughter.

Nearly an hour afterwards when she brought Miss Jessie up a basin of delicately made arrowroot and stood over her like a dragoon until the last spoonful was finished then she disappeared.

Miss Jessie began to tell me some more of the plans which had suggested themselves to her and insensibly fell into talking of the days that were past and gone and interested me so much that I neither knew nor heeded how time passed.

We were both startled when Miss Jenkins reappeared and caught us crying.

I was afraid lest she would be displeased as she often said that crying hindered digestion and I knew she wanted Miss Jessie to get strong but instead she looked queer and excited and fidgeted around us without saying anything.

At last she spoke.

I have been so much startled.

No I've not been at all startled.

Don't mind me my dear Miss Jessie I've been very much surprised.

In fact I've had a caller whom you knew once my dear Miss Jessie.

Miss Jessie went very white then flushed scarlet and looked eagerly at Miss Jenkins.

A gentleman my dear who wants to know if you would see him.

Is it is it not stammered out Miss Jessie and got no further.

This is his card said Miss Jenkins giving it to Miss Jessie and while her head was bent over it Miss Jenkins went through a series of winks and odd faces to me and formed her lips into a long sentence of which of course I could not understand a word.

May he come up asked Miss Jenkins at last.

Oh yes certainly said Miss Jessie as much as to say this is your house you may show any visitor where you like.

She took up some knitting of Miss Mattie's and began to be very busy though I could see that she was trembling all over.

Miss Jenkins rang the bell and told the servant who answered it to show Major Gordon upstairs and presently in walked a tall fine frank looking man of 40 or upwards.

He shook hands with Miss Jessie but he couldn't see her eyes.

She kept them so fixed on the ground.

Miss Jenkins asked me if I would come and help her to tie up the preserves in the storeroom and though Miss Jessie plucked at my gown and even looked up at me with a begging eye I just not refused to go where Miss Jenkins asked.

Instead of tying up preserves in the storeroom however we went to the dining room and there Miss Jenkins told me what Major Gordon had told her how he had served in the same regiment with Captain Brown and had become acquainted with Miss Jessie then a sweet-looking blooming girl of 18.

How the acquaintance had grown into love on his part though it had been some years before he had spoken.

How on becoming possessed through the will of an uncle of a good estate in Scotland he had offered and been refused although with so much agitation and evident distress that he was sure she was not indifferent to him and how he had discovered that the obstacle was the felled disease which was even then too surely threatening her sister.

She had mentioned that the surgeons foretold intense suffering and there was no one but herself to nurse her poor Mary or cheer and comfort her father during the time of illness.

They had had long discussions and on her refusal to pledge herself to him as his wife when all should be over he had grown angry and broken off entirely and gone abroad believing that she was a cold-hearted person whom he would do well to forget.

He had been travelling in the east and was on his return home when at Rome he saw the account of Captain Brown's death.

Just then Miss Matty who had been out all the morning and had only lately returned to the house burst in with a face of dismay and outraged propriety.

Oh goodness me she said.

Deborah there's a gentleman sitting in the drawing room with his arm around Miss Jessie's waist.

Miss Matty's eyes looked large with terror.

Miss Jenkins snubbed her down in an instant.

The most proper place in the world for his arm to be.

Go away Matilda and mind your own business.

This from her sister who had hitherto been a model of feminine decorum was a blow for poor Miss Matty and with a double shock she left the room.

The last time I ever saw poor Miss Jenkins was many years after this.

Mrs Gordon had kept up a warm and affectionate intercourse with all at Cranford.

Miss Jenkins,

Miss Matty and Miss Pole had all been to visit her and returned with wonderful accounts of her house,

Her husband,

Her dress and her looks for with happiness something of her early bloom returned.

She had been a year or two younger than we had taken her for.

Her eyes were always lovely and as Mrs Gordon her dimples were not out of place.

At the time to which I have referred when I last saw Miss Jenkins that lady was old and feeble and had lost something of her strong mind.

Little Flora Gordon was staying with the Mrs Jenkins and when I came in she was reading aloud to Miss Jenkins who lay feeble and changed on the sofa.

Flora put down the rambler when I came in.

Ah said Miss Jenkins you find me changed my dear I can't see as I used to do.

If Flora were not here to read to me I hardly know how I should get through the day.

Did you ever read The Rambler?

It's a wonderful book,

Wonderful and the most improving reading for Flora which I dare say it would have been if she could have read half the words without spelling and could have understood the meaning of a third.

Better than that strange old book with the queer name poor Captain Brown was killed for reading.

That book by Mr Boz you know.

Old Poz when I was a girl but that's a long time ago I acted Lucy in Old Poz.

She babbled on long enough for Flora to get a good long spell at the Christmas carol which Miss Mattie had left on the table.

To be continued.

Reviews

I laughed. I cried. I laughed again. - Thank you, Mandy.

Really enjoying listening not at bedtime but while doing chores around the house. Thanks for keeping me company Mandy 🙏🏻

You’ve introduced me to another enjoyable journey! Thank you x

This will require another listen or two to hear the ending, since I fell asleep about halfway through. Life before TV and YouTube …