imagine Peter riding on one; and had seen a
boa-constrictor too, which was more than she
wished to imagine in her fancy pictures of
Peter's locality; and in a year when Miss
Jenkyns had learnt some piece of poetry off by
heart, and used to say, at all the Cranford
parties, how Peter was surveying mankind
from China to Peru, which everybody had
thought very grand and rather appropriate,
because India was between China and Peru,
if you took care to turn the globe to the left
instead of the right.

I suppose all these enquiries of mine, and
the consequent curiosity excited in the minds
of my friends, made us blind and deaf to what
was going on around us. It seemed to me
as if the sun rose and shone, and as if the
rain rained on Cranford just as usual, and I
did not notice any sign of the times that
could be considered as a prognostic of any
uncommon event; and to the best of my
belief, not only Miss Matey and Mrs. Forrester,
but even Miss Pole herself, whom we
looked upon as a kind of prophetess from the
knack she had of foreseeing things before
they came to pass—although she did not like
to disturb her friends by telling them her
fore-knowledge—even Miss Pole herself was
breathless with astonishment, when she came
to tell us of the astounding piece of news.
But I must recover myself; the contemplation
of it even at this distance of time has
taken away my breath and my grammar,
and unless I subdue my emotion, my spelling
will go too.

We were sitting—Miss Matey and I—much
as usual; she in the blue chintz easy chair,
with her back to the light, and her knitting
in her hand—I reading aloud the newspaper
before named in Cranford visiting; a few
minutes more and we should have gone to
make the little alterations in dress usual
before calling time (twelve o'clock) in Cranford.
I remember the scene and the date
well; we had been talking of the Signor's
rapid recovery since the warmer weather had
set in, and praising Mr. Hoggins's skill, and
lamenting his want of refinement and manner
—(it seems a curious coincidence that this
should have been our subject, but so it was)—
when a knock was heard; a caller's knock—
three distinct taps—and we were flying (that
is to say Miss Matey could not walk very fast,
having had a touch of rheumatism) to our
rooms to change cap and collars, when Miss
Pole arrested us by calling out as she came
up the stairs, "Don't go—I can't wait—it is
not twelve, I know, but never mind your
dress; I must speak to you."  We did our
best to look as if it was not we who had
made the hurried movement, the sound of
which she had heard; for of course we did
not like to have it supposed that we had any
old clothes that it was convenient to wear
out in the "sanctuary of home," as Miss
Jenkyns once prettily called the back parlour,
where she was tying up preserves. So we
threw our gentility with double force into
our manners, and very genteel we were for
two minutes while Miss Pole recovered
breath, and excited our curiosity strongly by
lifting up her hands in amazement, and
bringing them down in silence, as if what she
had to say was too big for words, and could
only be expressed by pantomime.

"What do you think, Miss Matey? What
do you think? Lady Glenmire is to marry—
is to be married, I mean—Lady Glenmire—
Mr. Hoggins—Mr. Hoggins is going to marry
Lady Glenmire."

"Marry!" said we. "Marry! Madness!"

"Marry!" said Miss Pole with the decision
that belonged to her character. "I said
Marry! as you do; and I also said, What a
fool my lady is going to make of herself. I
could have said 'Madness!' but I controlled
myself, for it was in a public shop that I heard
of it. Where feminine delicacy is gone to I
don't know. You and I, Miss Matey, would
have been ashamed to have known that our
marriage was spoken of in a grocer's shop, in
the hearing of shopmen!"

"But," said Miss Matey, sighing as one
recovering from a blow, "perhaps it is not
true. Perhaps we are doing her injustice."

"No!" said Miss Pole. "I have taken
care to ascertain that. I went straight to
Mrs. Fitz Adam, to borrow a cookery book
which I knew she had; and I introduced my
congratulations apropos of the difficulty
gentlemen must have in house-keeping; and
Mrs. Fitz Adam bridled up, and said that she
believed it was true, though how and where
I could have heard it she did not know. She
said her brother and Lady Glenmire had come
to an understanding at last. 'Understanding!'
such a coarse word! But my lady will have
to come down to many a want of refinement,
I have reason to believe Mr. Hoggins sups on
bread and cheese and beer every night."

"Marry!" said Miss Matey once again.
"Well! I never thought of it. Two people
that we know going to be married. It's
coming very near!"

So near that my heart stopped beating
when I heard of it while you might have
counted twelve.

"One does not know whose turn may come
next. Here in Cranford poor Lady Glenmire
might have thought herself safe," said
Miss Matey with gentle pity in her tones.

"Bah!" said Miss Pole with a toss of her
head. "Don't you remember poor dear
Captain Brown's song Jibbie Fowler, and
the line

     ' Set her on the Tintorle Tap,
      The wind will blaw a man 'till her.'"

"That was because Jibbie Fowler was rich,
I think."

"Well! there is a kind of attraction about
Lady Glenmire that I, for one, should be
ashamed to have."

I put in my wonder. "But how can she