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257
Cranford
·
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
53
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
newfangled
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.
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