Cranford

Miss Matty’s Bank Meeting Invitation

Miss Matty reads aloud her printed invitation, signed “Edwin Wilson,” to attend an important shareholders’ meeting of the Town and County Bank in Drumble on Thursday the twenty-first. She is flattered, recalling that Miss Jenkyns once received a similar invitation—complete with a newly ordered bonnet—though Deborah had been prevented by a bad cold and received only a polite account of the proceedings. Miss Matty muses on whether she is being asked to help choose a director, and playfully nominates the narrator’s father, forgetting that he holds no shares. She concludes by remarking that the bank has paid eight per cent. for years, while the narrator, possessing only “half-knowledge,” grows increasingly uneasy and resolves to say nothing.

Planning the Shopping Trip

To escape the uncomfortable subject, the narrator steers the conversation toward the day’s expedition. Miss Matty explains the etiquette: one ought not to arrive at the fashion show until after twelve, lest one appear too curious about caps and trimmings before the world. Following Miss Jenkyns’s example of appearing as if the latest fashions were nothing new—a manner she had caught from Lady Arley—Miss Matty proposes slipping down early to buy tea and examine the silks in private, then returning after twelve with their minds “disengaged” from dress. They discuss the gown’s color (sea-green preferred, with maize and silver gray as alternatives) and the requisite number of breadths, the narrator noting that this will be the first time in Miss Matty’s life that she has chosen anything of consequence for herself.

Farmer’s Bank Note Refused

At Mr Johnson’s shop, the errand begins routinely: tea is purchased, the silks are unrolled, and the fashion show-room awaits. Country folk from the surrounding farms have come in for market day, among them an honest man named Mr Dobson, who approaches the counter to select a shawl, clearly intent on surprising some Molly or Jenny at home. He tenders a five-pound note of the Town and County Bank along with grocery purchases. The shopman examines the note with puzzled, doubtful air, then admits that a warning against notes issued by that bank had been received that very morning, and he must therefore request payment in cash or in another bank’s notes. The farmer’s face falls “into dismay and bewilderment” as he strikes the table and laments that “notes and gold” are not “to be had for the picking up.”

Miss Matty Redeems the Note

Miss Matty, having momentarily forgotten her gown in sympathy for the man, presses the shopman to identify the bank, and on hearing “Town and County Bank,” quietly takes the note from the shopman’s hand. The narrator, in “nervous cowardice,” tries to distract her by praising the lilac silk. Miss Matty, however, adopts a “soft dignified manner” rare to her and asks the shopman whether the note is forged. On being told it is genuine but that the bank is rumored to be failing, she offers Mr Dobson five sovereigns in exchange for his note, declaring that if honest people are to lose their money because they have taken the bank’s notes, then she, as a shareholder, ought to bear the loss. Mr Dobson, reluctant to substitute one victim for another, accepts with “silent gratitude.” Miss Matty resolves to wait a few days before purchasing her silk, “perhaps” finding a greater choice then, and asks to be shown upstairs.

Viewing Fashions and Meeting Miss Pole

The pair ascend the iron corkscrew stairs to the former loft, now a fashion show-room, and inspect the bonnets, shawls, sleeves, and skirts with minute and curious interest “as if the gown to be made after them had been bought.” The little drama in the shop has not damped Miss Matty’s curiosity in the least. The narrator, however, catches glimpses of a figure dodging behind cloaks and mantles, and by a “dexterous move” comes face to face with Miss Pole, also in morning costume—her principal feature being the absence of her teeth, concealed by a veil. Miss Pole, on the same private errand, quickly takes her departure, pleading a bad headache and claiming she does not feel “up to conversation.”