I was to leave
Cranford the next day, and before I went I saw that all the effects
of the open window had quite vanished. I had superintended most of
the alterations necessary in the house and household during the
latter weeks of my stay. The shop was once more a parlour: the
empty resounding rooms again furnished up to the very garrets.
There had been some talk of establishing Martha and Jem in another
house, but Miss Matty would not hear of this. Indeed, I never saw
her so much roused as when Miss Pole had assumed it to be the most
desirable arrangement. As long as Martha would remain with Miss
Matty, Miss Matty was only too thankful to have her about her; yes,
and Jem too, who was a very pleasant man to have in the house, for
she never saw him from week's end to week's end. And as for the
probable children, if they would all turn out such little darlings
as her god-daughter, Matilda, she should not mind the number, if
Martha didn't. Besides, the next was to be called Deborah--a point
which Miss Matty had reluctantly yielded to Martha's stubborn
determination that her first-born was to be Matilda. So Miss Pole
had to lower her colours, and even her voice, as she said to me
that, as Mr and Mrs Hearn were still to go on living in the same
house with Miss Matty, we had certainly done a wise thing in hiring
Martha's niece as an auxiliary.
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