Cranford

  The next morning she asked me if I would go down to the shop with her; and there, after much hesitation, we chose out three caps to be sent home and tried on, that the most becoming might be selected to take with us on Thursday.

  She was in a state of silent agitation all the way to Woodley. She had evidently never been there before; and, although she little dreamt I knew anything of her early story, I could perceive she was in a tremor at the thought of seeing the place which might have been her home, and round which it is 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 stood among fields; and there was an old-fashioned garden, where roses and currant-bushes touched each other, and where the feathery asparagus formed a pretty background to the pinks and gilly-flowers; there was no drive up to the door: we got out at a little gate, and walked up a straight box-edged path.

  ‘My cousin might make a drive, I think,’ said Miss Pole, who was afraid of ear-ache, and had only her cap on.

  ‘I think it is very pretty,’ said Miss Matty, with a soft plaintiveness in her voice, and almost in a whisper; for just then Mr Holbrook appeared at the door, rubbing his hands in very effervescence of hospitality. He looked more like my idea of Don Quixote than ever, and yet the likeness was only external. His respectable housekeeper stood modestly at the door to bid us welcome; and, while she led the elder ladies up-stairs to a bedroom, I begged to look about 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 the best expression he could find for what he was thinking or feeling. To be sure, he called Byron ‘my Lord Byrron’, and pronounced the name of Goethe strictly in accordance with the English sound of the letters – ‘As Goëthe says, “Ye ever-verdant palaces,”’ &c. Altogether, I never met with a man, before or since, who had spent so long a life in a secluded and not impressive country with ever-increasing delight in the daily and yearly change of season and beauty.

  When he and I went in, we found that dinner was nearly ready in the kitchen, – for so I suppose the room ought to be called, as there were oak dressers and cupboards all round, all over by the side of the fireplace, and only a small Turkey carpet in the middle of the flag-floor. The room might have been easily made into a handsome dark-oak dining-parlour, by removing the oven, and a few other appurtenances 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, when 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 covered over with dancing tree-shadows – was filled with books. They lay on the ground, they covered the walls, they strewed the table. He was evidently half ashamed and half proud of his extravagance in this respect. They were of all kinds, – poetry, and wild weird tales prevailing. He evidently chose his books in accordance with his own tastes, not because such and such were classical, or established favourites.

  ‘Ah!’ he said, ‘we farmers ought not to have much time for reading; yet somehow one can’t help it.’

  ‘What a pretty room!’ said Miss Matty, sotto voce.

  ‘What a pleasant place!’ said I, aloud, almost simultaneously.

  ‘Nay! if you like it,’ – replied he; ‘but you can sit on these great black leather three-cornered chairs? I like it better than the best parlour; but I thought ladies would take that for the smarter place.’

  It was the smarter place; but, like most smart things, not at all pretty, or pleasant, or home-like; so, while we were at dinner, the servant-girl dusted and scrubbed the counting-house chairs, and we sat there all the rest of the day.

  We had pudding before meat; and I thought Mr Holbrook was going to make some apology for his old-fashioned ways, for he began, –

  ‘I don’t know whether you like new-fangled ways.’

  ‘Oh! not at all!’ said Miss Matty.

  ‘No more do I,’ said he. ‘My housekeeper will have these in her new fashion; or else I tell her, that when I was a young man, we used to keep strictly to my father’s rule, “No broth, no ball; no 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 we liked a deal better; and the beef came last of all, and only those had it who had done justice to the broth and the ball. Now folks begin with sweet things, and turn their dinners topsy-turvy.’

  When the ducks and green peas came, we looked at each other in dismay; we had only two-pronged, black-handled forks. It is true, the steel was as bright as silver; but what were we to do? Miss Matty picked up her peas, one by one, on the point of the prongs, much as Aminé ate her grains 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 his large round-ended knife. I saw, I imitated, I survived! My friends, in spite of my precedent, could not muster up courage enough to do an ungenteel thing; and, if Mr Holbrook had not been so heartily hungry, he would probably have seen that the good peas went away almost untouched.

  After dinner, a clay pipe was brought in, and a spittoon; and, asking us to retire to another room, where he would soon join us, if we disliked tobacco-smoke, he presented his pipe to Miss Matty, and requested 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 kind in utter abhorrence. But if it was a shock to her refinement, it was also a gratification to her feelings to be thus selected; so she daintily stuffed the strong tobacco into the pipe; and then we withdrew.

  ‘It is very pleasant dining with a bachelor,’ said Miss Matty, softly, as we settled ourselves in the counting-house. ‘I only hope it is not improper; so many pleasant things are!’

  ‘What a number of books he has!’ said Miss Pole, looking round the room. ‘And how dusty they are!’

  ‘I think it must be like one of the great Dr Johnson’s rooms,’ said Miss Matty. ‘What a superior man your cousin must be!’

  ‘Yes!’ said Miss Pole; ‘he’s a great reader; but I am afraid he has got into very uncouth habits with living alone.’

  ‘Oh! uncouth is too hard a word. I should call him eccentric; very clever people always are!’ replied Miss Matty.

  When Mr Holbrook returned, he proposed a walk in the fields; but the two elder ladies were afraid of damp, and dirt; and had only very unbecoming calashes to put on over their caps; so they declined; and I was again his companion in a turn which he said he was 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 cloud, or glimpse of distant upland pastures, struck him, he quoted poetry to himself; saying it out loud in a grand sonorous voice, with just the emphasis that true feeling and appreciation give. We came upon an old cedar-tree, which stood at one end of the house: –

  The cedar spreads his dark-green layers of shade.

  ‘Capital term – “layers!” Wonderful man!’ I did not know whether he was speaking to me or not; but I put in an assenting ‘wo
nderful’, although I knew nothing about it; just because I was tired of being forgotten, and of being consequently silent.

  He turned sharp round. ‘Ay! you may say “wonderful.” Why, when I saw the review of his poems in Blackwood, I set off within an hour, and walked seven miles to Misselton (for the horses were not in the way) and ordered them. Now, what colour are ashbuds in March?’

  Is the man going mad? thought I. He is very like Don Quixote.

  ‘What colour are they, I say?’ repeated he, vehemently.

  ‘I am sure I don’t know, sir,’ said I, with the meekness of ignorance.

  ‘I knew you didn’t. No more did I – an old fool that I am! – till this young man comes and tells me. Black as ash-buds in March. And I’ve lived all my life in the country; more shame for me not to know. Black: they are jet-black, madam.’ And he went off again, swinging along to the music of some rhyme he had got hold of.

  When we came back, nothing would serve him but he must read us the poems he had been speaking of; and Miss Pole encouraged him in his proposal, I thought, because she wished me to hear his beautiful reading, of which she had boasted; but she afterwards 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 asleep within five minutes after he had begun a long poem, called Locksley Hall, and had a comfortable nap, unobserved, till he ended; when the cessation of his voice wakened her up, and she said, feeling that something was expected, and that Miss Pole was counting, –

  ‘What a pretty book!’

  ‘Pretty! madam! it’s beautiful! Pretty, indeed!’

  ‘Oh yes! I meant beautiful!’ said she, fluttered at his disapproval of her word. ‘It is so like that beautiful poem of Dr Johnson’s my sister used to read – I forget the name of it; what was it, my dear?’ turning to me.

  ‘Which do you mean, ma’am? What was it about?’

  ‘I don’t remember what it was about, and I’ve quite forgotten what the name of it was; but it was written by Dr Johnson, and was very beautiful, and very like what Mr Holbrook has just been reading.’

  ‘I don’t remember it,’ said he, reflectively. ‘But I don’t know Dr Johnson’s poems well. I must read them.’

  As we were getting into the fly to return, I heard Mr Holbrook say he should call on the ladies soon, and inquire how they got home; and this evidently pleased and fluttered Miss Matty at the time he said it; but after 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 of her mistress’s absence to have a ‘follower’. Martha looked good, and steady, and composed enough, as she came to help us out; she was always careful of Miss Matty, and to-night she made use of this unlucky speech:

  ‘Eh! dear ma’am, to think of your going out in an evening in such a thin shawl! It’s no better than muslin. At your age, ma’am, you should be careful.’

  ‘My age!’ said Miss Matty, almost speaking crossly, for her; for she was usually gentle. ‘My age! Why, how old do you think I am, that you talk about my age?’

  ‘Well, ma’am, I should say you were not far short of sixty: but folks’ looks is often against them – and I’m sure I meant no harm.’

  ‘Martha, I’m not yet fifty-two!’ said Miss Matty, with grave emphasis; for probably the remembrance of her youth had come very vividly before her this day, and she was annoyed at finding that golden time so far away in the past.

  But she never spoke of any former and more intimate acquaintance with Mr Holbrook. She had probably met with so little sympathy 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 could hardly avoid since Miss Pole’s confidence, that I saw how faithful her poor heart had been in its sorrow and its silence.

  She gave me some good reason for wearing her best cap every day, and sat near the window, in spite of her rheumatism, in order to see, without being seen, down into the street.

  He came. He put his open palms upon his knees, which were far apart, as he sat with his head bent down, whistling, after we had replied to his inquiries about our safe return. Suddenly, he jumped up:

  ‘Well, madam! have you any commands for Paris? I am going there in a week or two.’

  ‘To Paris!’ we both exclaimed.

  ‘Yes, madam! I’ve never been there, and always had a wish to go; and I think if I don’t go soon, I mayn’t go at all; so as soon as the hay is got in I shall go, before harvest time.’

  We were so much astonished, that we had no commissions.

  Just as he was going out of the room, he turned back, with his favourite exclamation:

  ‘God bless my soul, madam! but I nearly forgot half my errand. Here are the poems for you, you admired so much the other evening at my house.’ He tugged away at a parcel in his coat-pocket. ‘Good-by, miss,’ said he; ‘good-by, Matty! take care of yourself.’ And he was gone. But he had given her a book, and he had called her Matty, just as he used to do thirty years ago.

  ‘I wish he would not go to Paris,’ said Miss Matilda, anxiously. ‘I don’t believe frogs will agree with him; he used to have to be very careful what he ate, which was curious in so strong-looking a young man.’

  Soon after this I took my leave, giving many an injunction to Martha to look after her mistress, and to let me know if she thought that Miss Matilda was not so well; in which case I would volunteer a visit to my old friend, without noticing Martha’s intelligence to her.

  Accordingly I received a line or two from Martha every now and then; and, about November, I had a note to say her mistress was ‘very low and sadly off her food;’ and the account made me so uneasy that, although Martha did not decidedly summon me, I packed up my things and went.

  I received a warm welcome, in spite of the little flurry produced by my impromptu visit, for I had only been able to give a day’s notice. Miss Matilda looked miserably ill; and I prepared to comfort and cosset her.

  I went down to have a private talk with Martha.

  ‘How long has your mistress been so poorly?’ I asked, as I stood by the kitchen fire.

  ‘Well! I think it’s better than a fortnight; it is, I know; it was one Tuesday, after Miss Pole had been, that she went into this moping way. I thought she was tired, and it would go off with a night’s rest; but no! she has gone on and on ever since, till I thought it my duty to write to you, ma’am.’

  ‘You did quite right, Martha. It is a comfort to think she has so faithful a servant about her. And I hope you find your place comfortable?’

  ‘Well, ma’am, missus is very kind, and there’s plenty to eat and drink, and no more work but what I can do easily, – but—’ Martha hesitated.

  ‘But what, Martha?’

  ‘Why, it seems so hard of missus not to let me have any followers; there’s such lots of young fellows in the town; and many a one has as much as offered to keep company with me; and I may never be in such a likely place again, and it’s like wasting an opportunity. Many a girl as I know would have ’em unbeknownst to missus; but I’ve 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 good 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’s a steady young man, fit for any girl; only I had given missus my word.’ Martha was all but crying again; and I had little comfort to give her, for I knew, from old experience, of the horror with which both the Miss Jenkynses looked upon ‘followers;’ and in Miss Matty’s present nervous state this dread was not likely to be lessened.

  I went to see Miss Pole the next day, and took her completely by surprise; for she had not been to see Miss Matilda for two days.

  ??
?And now I must go back with you, my dear, for I promised to let her know how Thomas Holbrook went on; and, I’m sorry to say, his housekeeper has sent me word to-day that he hasn’t long 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 the counting-house, not reading or anything, but only saying, what a wonderful city Paris was! Paris has much to answer for, if it’s killed my cousin Thomas, for a better man never lived.’

  ‘Does Miss Matilda know of his illness?’ asked I; – a new light as to the cause of her indisposition dawning upon me.

  ‘Dear! to be sure, yes! Has not she told you? I let her know a fortnight ago, or more, when I first heard of it. How odd she shouldn’t have told you!’

  Not at all, I thought; but I did not say anything. I felt almost guilty of having spied too curiously into that tender heart, and I was not going to speak of its secrets, – hidden, Miss Matty believed, from all the world. I ushered Miss Pole into Miss Matilda’s little drawing-room; and then left them alone. But I was not surprised when Martha came to my bedroom door, to ask me to go down to dinner alone, for that missus had one of her bad headaches. She came into the drawing-room at tea-time; but it was evidently an 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, and taught girls cooking and plain sewing; and how Deborah had once danced with a lord; and how she used to visit at Sir Peter Arley’s, and try to remodel the quiet rectory establishment on the plans of Arley Hall, where they kept thirty servants; and how she had nursed Miss Matty through a long, long illness, of which I had never heard before, but which I now dated in my own mind as following the dismissal of the suit of Mr Holbrook. So we talked softly and quietly of old times, through the long November evening.