Cranford

Travel to Mrs Forrester’s Through Darkness Lane

When the evening arrives, Miss Matty is put into the sedan chair, having extracted promises from the chairmen not to abandon her. She fixes her face into a determined expression and gives the narrator a melancholy look through the glass. The party races through Darkness Lane, arriving safely though out of breath and with Miss Matty considerably jolted.

Sharing Personal Fears at the Gathering

Bolstered by their successful passage through Darkness Lane and eager to prove their candour superior to Mr Hoggins’s, the ladies take turns confessing their private fears. The narrator admits a dread of eyes watching her from flat wooden surfaces and describes turning her looking-glass to the wall. Miss Matty confesses her lifelong terror of something seizing her leg as she climbs into bed, and reveals her ingenious remedy of rolling a penny ball underneath to test the space first.

Mrs Forrester’s Night Watch Arrangements

Mrs Forrester admits that she has hired a boy from a neighbouring cottage, paying his parents in coal and supper, to guard the house at night. She has armed him with the late Major’s sword, instructing him to charge any noise with it drawn. The narrator points out the danger of his attacking the maid Jenny in the dark, but Mrs Forrester reassures her that the boy is a very sound sleeper, heavy suppers being, she suspects, the cause.

Dispute Over Ghost Beliefs

Pressed for her own private fear, Mrs Forrester solemnly whispers “Ghosts!” and defends them as part of her religion, citing her status as a major’s widow. Miss Pole attacks this belief with talk of indigestion, spectral and optical illusions, and references to Dr Ferrier and Dr Hibbert. Miss Matty quietly supports Mrs Forrester, and the dispute cannot be softened even when the mulled elder-wine is served, leaving a lasting difference between hostess and guest.

Jenny’s Account of the Headless Lady

Jenny, the little servant carrying in the elder-wine, is drawn into the debate and insists she saw a ghostly headless lady dressed all in white in Darkness Lane, wringing her hands in grief. The narrator notes Jenny’s position resembles that of a witness being cross-examined, and concludes she truly saw something her indigestion could not account for. Mrs Forrester takes quiet triumph in Jenny’s account, but the narrator reflects that she herself will soon have to pass through that very lane on the way home.

Return Journey via Headingley Causeway

The friends preserve a funereal silence as they dress for the journey home, fearing lest they offend the headless lady’s wandering ghost. Miss Matty draws the sedan curtains, and the chairmen set off so swiftly downhill that Miss Pole can only gasp “Don’t leave me!” and clutch the narrator’s arm. The women bribe the men with extra coins to take the muddier but safer route along Headingley Causeway, and although progress is slower in the thick mud, all eventually make it safely back to Cranford.

CHAPTER XI.

This chapter follows the Cranford community’s reaction to the discovery that the mysterious Signor Brunoni is actually Samuel Brown, an injured conjuror, and the resulting softening of their supernatural fears. The narrative centers on the communal effort to care for him and culminates in Miss Matty’s quiet, poignant reflection on her own unmarried life and the hopes she once held.

Discussion of Mrs Forrester’s Ghost Fear

The narrator encounters Lady Glenmire and Miss Pole setting out on a walk. Miss Pole, with a smile half-kind and half-contemptuous, attributes Mrs Forrester’s terror of ghosts to her solitary life and the influence of her servant Jenny’s bug-a-boo stories. Although the narrator feels sheepish about her own relief at Miss Pole’s earlier proposal to walk together on the dark Headingley Causeway, she says nothing and changes the subject.

Miss Pole Recounts the Morning Walk Adventure

In the afternoon, Miss Pole visits Miss Matty to share the true adventure of their morning walk. While inquiring for directions at the Rising Sun, a public house on the London road, the ladies learned of a small girl and her parents who had been lodging there for six weeks after their light cart broke down. The father had been seriously hurt, and although no bones were broken, the landlady believed he had sustained internal injuries from which he had languished ever since.