Cranford

Bank Failure and Miss Matty’s Ruin

The next morning brings official and unofficial news that the Town and County Bank has stopped payment. Miss Matty is ruined.

Miss Matty’s Calm Acceptance of Poverty

Miss Matty tries to speak quietly but cannot entirely suppress her tears when she realizes she will have only about five shillings a week to live upon. She explains that she is not crying for herself but for the thought of how her mother would grieve, since their mother always cared for them more than for herself. She observes that many poor people have less, that she is not extravagant, and that, thank God, once the mutton, Martha’s wages, and the rent are paid, she owes nothing. She smiles through her tears, concerned for Martha, who will be sorry to leave her.

CHAPITRE XIV.

Chapter XIV, “Friends in Need,” depicts Miss Matty Jenkyns’s immediate response to her reduced financial circumstances after losing her capital. The chapter follows the narrator’s efforts to contact the wealthy Aga Jenkyns, Miss Matty’s loyal servant Martha’s fierce refusal to abandon her mistress, the friends’ anxious evaluation of possible livelihoods, the proposal that Miss Matty sell tea, and finally Martha and her suitor Jem Hearn’s surprise offer of a home together. The chapter emphasizes communal loyalty, practical kindness, and the gentle humor that arises from well-meaning attempts to help.

Miss Matty’s Immediate Retrenchment

Miss Matty sets about the necessary retrenchment at once, showing herself an example of prompt right action under her altered circumstances. While she goes downstairs to break the news to Martha, the narrator slips out with a letter to the Aga Jenkyns, intending to obtain the exact address from the Signor Brunoni’s lodgings.

Retrieving the Aga Jenkyns’ Address

The narrator visits the signor’s lodgings, where the recuperating Brunoni and his wife are absorbed in planning their next tour and debating where the red letters of their placard will look most striking. After patiently giving several opinions on this important subject, the narrator secures the Aga Jenkyns’s address, which is spelled by sound and looks very peculiar. She posts the letter on her way home, pausing to reflect wonderingly on the little piece of paper now traveling toward the strange countries beyond the Ganges, before hurrying back so Miss Matty will not miss her.

Martha’s Refusal to Leave Service

Martha opens the door in tears, having just been told by Miss Matty that she must be let go. In a long, indignant speech, Martha declares she will never leave her mistress, citing her savings in the bank, her good stock of clothes, and her loyalty. She waves away the narrator’s attempts at “reason” and insists she would not “serve Mammon” by striking for wages like Rosy Fitz-Adam. When the narrator gently points out that Miss Matty can scarcely feed herself, Martha is struck afresh, but her grief quickly turns practical: she decides to make Miss Matty a fine pudding at her own expense, paying from her private tea-pot of savings, and forbids the narrator to tell.

Evaluating Miss Matty’s Livelihood Options

Miss Matty and the narrator sit down to plan. Miss Matty’s modest idea is to take a single room, retain necessary furniture, and quietly exist on what remains. The narrator, more ambitious, runs through every accomplishment Miss Matty might teach: music long forgotten, embroidery pattern-tracing nearly useless, fancy work and globes beyond her, spelling idiosyncratic. Miss Matty’s true skills—candle-lighters, knitted garters, and wrapped sewing-silk cards—are hardly marketable. Teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic is also problematic, as her cough interrupts long words and her spelling grows eccentric in formal letters. The narrator concludes there is nothing Miss Matty can teach the rising generation of Cranford except her patience, humility, and quiet contentment, and the question remains unanswered as Martha announces a tearful dinner.

Tea Selling Proposal for Miss Matty

Over the tea-urn that afternoon, a new idea comes to the narrator: Miss Matty could sell tea as an agent for the East India Tea Company. The plan has many advantages—tea is neither greasy nor sticky (qualities Miss Matty cannot endure), requires no shop-window, and is not heavy. The only objection is the buying and selling that trade would entail, and the narrator wonders whether Miss Matty can be persuaded to overcome the sense of degradation. While she is still mulling this over, a clumping on the stairs interrupts her thoughts.