Cranford

Miss Pole’s Etiquette Inquiry

Miss Pole calls on Miss Matty early the next morning, ostensibly on a small piece of business but actually seeking guidance on etiquette. She is puzzled about how to address Lady Glenmire, wondering whether the proper forms are “Your Ladyship” or “My Lady” in place of the usual “Ma’am,” and asks Miss Matty for advice based on her acquaintance with Lady Arley.

Miss Matty’s Etiquette Perplexity

Miss Matty struggles to recall how Lady Arley was addressed, removing and replacing her spectacles in vain. She admits she barely saw Lady Arley more than twice and laments that her sister Deborah would have known immediately. The narrator learns from Miss Pole that Lady Glenmire is the widow of Mrs Jamieson’s eldest brother, and Miss Pole asks to practice the correct form on the narrator before attempting it with the real lady.

Mrs Jamieson’s Exclusion Request

Mrs Jamieson arrives at Miss Matty’s on what the narrator considers an unpolite errand. With slow deliberation, she insinuates that she does not wish the Cranford ladies to call on her sister-in-law, apparently wishing to present herself to her noble relation as someone who only visited “county” families. Miss Matty, slow to grasp the implication, eventually understands the snub.

Miss Pole’s Indignant Reaction

Miss Pole returns red and indignant after encountering Mrs Jamieson on the road, where Mrs Jamieson had informed her of the same exclusion. Miss Pole fumes at being caught speechless and researches Lady Glenmire in Mrs Forrester’s Peerage, dismissing her as merely the widow of a poor Scottish baron and the daughter of a Mr Campbell. She vents further when it emerges she had already ordered a new cap for a card game at Mrs Jamieson’s, which she will now deny her.