Cranford

Family reunion and the Brunonis’ conjuring career in England

With Sam back and needing a trade, he recalled tricks he had once learned from an Indian juggler and set up as a conjurer. The act succeeded well enough that he brought his brother Thomas in to assist, and the twins’ likeness helped many tricks go over smoothly. Thomas has since set up on his own, but his good nature and useful contributions remain. Mrs Brown still marvels that anyone can mistake Thomas for her husband, as Thomas lacks Sam’s fine carriage.

Speculation that Aga Jenkyns is the long-lost Peter Jenkyns

Recalling the baby’s serious illness at Chunderabaddad, Mrs Brown says it was the kindness of Aga Jenkyns, who took them in, that saved Phoebe’s life. The narrator seizes on the name “Jenkyns”—a name associated with kindness, since the nice old lady daily takes Phoebe for walks. A sudden idea strikes the narrator: could the Aga Jenkyns be the long-lost Peter Jenkyns? Though many report him dead and others claim he has risen to become Great Lama of Thibet, Miss Matty believes him alive, and the narrator resolves to make further inquiry.

CAPÍTULO XII.

The chapter opens with the question of whether “poor Peter” of Cranford might be the Aga Jenkyns of Chunderabaddad. The narrator, determined to prove herself discreet after being criticized for indiscretion, vows to collect evidence before reporting her suspicions to her father, the family friend of the two Miss Jenkynses.

Poor Peter’s Identity

The identity of the mysterious “poor Peter” remains unresolved. The narrator’s efforts to investigate whether Peter and the Aga are the same person set the stage for the chapter’s unfolding events in the ladies’ society of Cranford.

The Investigation Plan

The narrator approaches her fact-finding mission among the Cranford ladies with the same result as a ladies’ committee described by her father—where each person pursues her own line of thought to her own satisfaction, with little advancement of the subject at hand.

The Fruitless Inquiry

When the narrator asks Miss Pole at Mrs Forrester’s house about the last thing they heard of Peter, each lady veers off on her own tangent. Mrs Forrester becomes absorbed in the veiled prophet of Lalla Rookh, cosmetics, and hair oils, while Miss Pole proceeds through llamas to Peruvian bonds, the share market, and her opinion of joint-stock banks.

The Great Lama Rumor

Among the various reports about Peter is an absurd story that he was elected Great Lama of Thibet. The ladies dispute whether llamas are carnivorous animals, and Mrs Forrester confesses she habitually confuses carnivorous with graminivorous, just as she does horizontal and perpendicular.

The Scant Intelligence

The only solid fact gleaned from conversation is that Peter was last heard of in India or that neighbourhood. This meagre intelligence reached Cranford in a year marked by Miss Pole’s purchase of an Indian muslin gown, Wombwell’s circus (when Miss Matty wanted to see an elephant to imagine Peter riding one), and Miss Jenkyns’s recitation of poetry about surveying mankind from China to Peru.

The Parlour Scene

One March morning, Miss Matty sits in her blue chintz easy-chair knitting while the narrator reads aloud from the St James’s Chronicle. They are preparing to receive callers when a knock announces Miss Pole, who arrives breathless with news too astounding for words.

Miss Pole’s Visit

Miss Pole arrests their preparations by calling out that she cannot wait, and despite their genteel attempts to appear unhurried, she signals her extraordinary news by lifting her hands in amazement and bringing them down in pantomime, unable to speak.

The Engagement News

Miss Pole delivers the astonishing announcement: Lady Glenmire is to marry Mr Hoggins. Both Miss Matty and the narrator exclaim in disbelief, while Miss Pole declares she called it madness in a public shop where feminine delicacy had been shamefully absent.

The Marriage Discussion

The ladies debate the surprising match. Miss Matty reflects that two people they know are marrying brings the event uncomfortably near. They speculate on Mr Hoggins’s wealth, pleasant appearance, and good nature, while Miss Pole wittily observes that Lady Glenmire has married for an establishment and “takes the surgery with it.”