Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
257
Cranford
·
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
40
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
Matty
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
Matty’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.”
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
