Cranford

After two robberies take place in Cranford, rumors start to spread about who might be behind the theft. Mrs. Forrester, whose husband fought the French in Spain, believes that French spies have infiltrated Cranford and are behind the robberies. Her theory is that the people of Cranford, who live in such close proximity to aristocracy, would never dare to behave immorally, so the culprits must be foreigners. She also theorizes that Signor Brunoni is a French spy because he speaks broken English and suggests that he and his accomplices seek to infiltrate the weak, undefended parts of England.

One late afternoon, Miss Pole and Betty show up unannounced at Miss Matty’s house. Miss Pole is adamant that there will be a robbery at her house tonight, so she and Betty are going to stay at Miss Matty’s. Miss Pole claims that she saw two suspicious looking men pass by her house three times.

Miss Pole takes pride in retelling the story of her suspected robbers. The narrator notices that the details of Miss Pole’s stories grow more exaggerated each time she tells them. When Miss Pole hears that Mr. Hoggins, the surgeon, was recently attacked at his own door, she is certain that her suspected robbers were behind the attack. She goes to Mr. Hoggins to confirm and returns to inform them that Mr. Hoggins denies the attack happened. According to Miss Pole, men will always act as if they are not capable of being outwitted.

Mrs. Forrester invites the ladies to join her (as they do every year) on the anniversary of her wedding day—a sad day now that her husband has passed. The women are frightened at the prospect of traveling amidst the robberies, but they persevere out of loyalty to their friend.

Miss Pole calls on the narrator and Miss Matty to tell them about her afternoon. She and Lady Glenmire went to find a woman in their neighborhood known for her talent in knitting woolen stockings. They stopped at an inn to ask for directions and found a mysterious group—two men, a woman, and a child—that has been staying at the inn since their spring-cart broke down. Miss Pole and Lady Glenmire were shocked to find that one of the men was Signor Brunoni, who they learned is actually an Englishman named Samuel “Sam” Brown. The woman is his wife, and the other gentleman is his twin brother.

According to the inn’s landlady, Mrs. Roberts, Sam had been seriously hurt and was recovering. Lady Glenmire decided to persuade Mrs. Brown, or “Signora Brunoni” as the women call her, to move Sam to Cranford for immediate medical attention under the care of their surgeon, Mr. Hoggins. The Cranford women are proud of Mr. Hoggins as a surgeon but deem him unrefined and vulgar as a man.

The Cranford women devote special care and attention to Sam upon his arrival. They no longer fear the conjurer or another robbery, but they avoid acknowledging that they overreacted to the supposed Cranford crimes. Miss Pole is the most indignant of all and insists that Lady Glenmire, one of the few who recognizes they had little cause to panic, will believe anything because she has been married. That evening Miss Matty confides in the narrator that there was once a time when she looked forward to marrying and having children. Even now, she has pangs of longing when she sees a mother and child.

One day, Mrs. Brown shares stories about her and Sam’s life with the narrator. She says that Sam was previously in the 31st Regiment. They were ordered to India, where she lost six children before she gave birth to their daughter Phoebe. She decided to return to England to ensure Phoebe’s health and safety, but Phoebe fell ill during the long, arduous journey. Mrs. Brown says she met a man named Aga Jenkyns, who nursed Phoebe back to health. The narrator wonders if the mysterious “Aga” is in fact the long-lost Peter Jenkyns, previously assumed dead.

The narrator says that people find her lack of discretion annoying. To prove her prudence, she tries to avoid hinting at her theory that Aga Jenkyns may in fact be Peter. She attempts to get information out of the Cranford women without raising suspicion.

One day Miss Pole arrives with news so shocking that she makes an unannounced visit to Miss Matty’s before a socially acceptable hour. She informs the ladies that Mr. Hoggins, the surgeon, and Lady Glenmire are going to be married. The Cranford women are shocked and appalled that Lady Glenmire would willingly choose to marry. They wonder how the Honourable Mrs. Jamieson will react to the news and fear that they may have to choose between Mrs. Jamieson and Lady Glenmire should there be a disagreement. They refuse to congratulate the couple until Mrs. Jamieson returns and sets the precedent for how they should react.

The narrator notices that any time an engagement is announced, the unmarried women of Cranford rush out to buy new clothes.

The narrator briefly talks about her father, who happens to be an old friend of the Jenkyns family. He allowed the narrator to remain in Cranford all winter after Miss Matty wrote to him about the robberies. The narrator suspects Miss Matty exaggerated and made her seem like the defender of the household. Now that the weather is warmer and the days are longer, the narrator’s father has urged her to return home.