 we recollected ourselves, and set out afresh
with double valiance. By day we heard strange stories from the shopkeepers and
cottagers, of carts that went about in the dead of night, drawn by horses shod
with felt, and guarded by men in dark clothes, going round the town, no doubt in
search of some unwatched house or some unfastened door.
    Miss Pole, who affected great bravery herself, was the principal person to
collect and arrange these reports so as to make them assume their most fearful
aspect. But we discovered that she had begged one of Mr. Hogging's worn-out hats
to hang up in her lobby, and we (at least I) had doubts as to whether she really
would enjoy the little adventure of having her house broken into, as she
protested she should. Miss Matty made no secret of being an arrant coward, but
she went regularly through her housekeeper's duty of inspection - only the hour
for this became earlier and earlier, till at last we went the rounds at
half-past six, and Miss Matty adjourned to bed soon after seven, in order to get
the night over the sooner.
    Cranford had so long piqued itself on being an honest and moral town that it
had grown to fancy itself too genteel and well-bred to be otherwise, and felt
the stain upon its character at this time doubly. But we comforted ourselves
with the assurance which we gave to each other that the robberies could never
have been committed by any Cranford person; it must have been a stranger or
strangers who brought this disgrace upon the town, and occasioned as many
precautions as if we were living among the Red Indians or the French.
    This last comparison of our nightly state of defence and fortification was
made by Mrs. Forrester, whose father had served under General Burgoyne in the
American war, and whose husband had fought the French in Spain. She indeed
inclined to the idea that, in some way, the French were connected with the small
thefts, which were ascertained facts, and the burglaries and highway robberies,
which were rumours. She had been deeply impressed with the idea of French spies
at some time in her life; and the notion could never be fairly eradicated, but
sprang up again from time to time. And now her theory was this: - The Cranford
people respected themselves too much, and were too grateful to the aristocracy
who were so kind as to live near the town, ever to disgrace their bringing up by
being dishonest or immoral; therefore, we must believe that the robbers were
strangers - if strangers, why not foreigners
