CHAPTER III—­A LOVE AFFAIR OF LONG AGO

I thought that probably my connection with Cranford would cease after Miss Jenkyns’s death; at least, that it would have to be kept up by correspondence, which bears much the same relation to personal intercourse that the books of dried plants I sometimes see ("Hortus Siccus,” I think they call the thing) do to the living and fresh flowers in the lines and meadows.  I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, by receiving a letter from Miss Pole (who had always come in for a supplementary week after my annual visit to Miss Jenkyns) proposing that I should go and stay with her; and then, in a couple of days after my acceptance, came a note from Miss Matty, in which, in a rather circuitous and very humble manner, she told me how much pleasure I should confer if I could spend a week or two with her, either before or after I had been at Miss Pole’s; “for,” she said, “since my dear sister’s death I am well aware I have no attractions to offer; it is only to the kindness of my friends that I can owe their company.”

Of course I promised to come to dear Miss Matty as soon as I had ended my visit to Miss Pole; and the day after my arrival at Cranford I went to see her, much wondering what the house would be like without Miss Jenkyns, and rather dreading the changed aspect of things.  Miss Matty began to cry as soon as she saw me.  She was evidently nervous from having anticipated my call.  I comforted her as well as I could; and I found the best consolation I could give was the honest praise that came from my heart as I spoke of the deceased.  Miss Matty slowly shook her head over each virtue as it was named and attributed to her sister; and at last she could not restrain the tears which had long been silently flowing, but hid her face behind her handkerchief and sobbed aloud.

“Dear Miss Matty,” said I, taking her hand—­for indeed I did not know in what way to tell her how sorry I was for her, left deserted in the world.  She put down her handkerchief and said —

“My dear, I’d rather you did not call me Matty.  She did not like it; but I did many a thing she did not like, I’m afraid—­and now she’s gone!  If you please, my love, will you call me Matilda?”

I promised faithfully, and began to practise the new name with Miss Pole that very day; and, by degrees, Miss Matilda’s feeling on the subject was known through Cranford, and we all tried to drop the more familiar name, but with so little success that by-and-by we gave up the attempt.

My visit to Miss Pole was very quiet.  Miss Jenkyns had so long taken the lead in Cranford that now she was gone, they hardly knew how to give a party.  The Honourable Mrs Jamieson, to whom Miss Jenkyns herself had always yielded the post of honour, was fat and inert, and very much at the mercy of her old servants.  If they chose that she should give a party, they reminded her of the necessity for so