 a hard one.
    He endeavoured to make peace with Miss Jenkyns soon after the memorable
dispute I have named, by a present of a wooden fire-shovel (his own making),
having heard her say how much the grating of an iron one annoyed her. She
received the present with cool gratitude, and thanked him formally. When he was
gone, she bade me put it away in the lumber-room; feeling, probably, that no
present from a man who preferred Mr. Boz to Dr. Johnson could be less jarring
than an iron fire-shovel.
    Such was the state of things when I left Cranford and went to Drumble. I
had, however, several correspondents, who kept me au fait as to the proceedings
of the dear little town. There was Miss Pole, who was becoming as much absorbed
in crochet as she had been once in knitting, and the burden of whose letter was
something like, But don't you forget the white worsted at Flint's of the old
song; for at the end of every sentence of news came a fresh direction as to some
crochet commission which I was to execute for her. Miss Matilda Jenkyns (who did
not mind being called Miss Matty, when Miss Jenkyns was not by) wrote nice,
kind, rambling letters, now and then venturing into an opinion of her own; but
suddenly pulling herself up, and either begging me not to name what she had
said, as Deborah thought differently, and she knew, or else putting in a
postscript to the effect that, since writing the above, she had been talking
over the subject with Deborah, and was quite convinced that, etc. - (here
probably followed a recantation of every opinion she had given in the letter).
Then came Miss Jenkyns - Deborah, as she liked Miss Matty to call her, her
father having once said that the Hebrew name ought to be so pronounced. I
secretly think she took the Hebrew prophetess for a model in character; and,
indeed, she was not unlike the stern prophetess in some ways, making allowance,
of course, for modern customs and difference in dress. Miss Jenkyns wore a
cravat, and a little bonnet like a jockey-cap, and altogether had the appearance
of a strong-minded woman; although she would have despised the modern idea of
women being equal to men. Equal, indeed! she knew they were superior. But to
return to her letters. Everything in them was stately and grand like herself. I
have been looking them over (dear Miss Jenkyns, how I honoured
