Cranford

by Elizabeth Gaskell

A

nd now Miss Betty Barker was a proud and happy woman! She stirred the fire, and shut the door, and sat as near to it as she could, quite on the edge of her chair. When Peggy came in, tottering under the weight of the tea-tray, I noticed that Miss Barker was sadly afraid lest Peggy should not keep her distance sufficiently. She and her mistress were on very familiar terms in their everyday intercourse, and Peggy wanted now to make several little confidences to her, which Miss Barker was on thorns to hear, but which she thought it her duty, as a lady, to repress. So she turned away from all Peggy's asides and signs; but she made one or two very malapropos answers to what was said: and at last, seized with a bright idea, she exclaimed, “Poor, sweet Carlo! I'm forgetting him. Come downstairs with me, poor dog, and it shall have its tea, it shall!”

      In a few minutes she returned, bland and benignant as before; but I thought she had forgotten to give the “poor dog” anything to eat, judging by the avidity with which he swallowed down chance pieces of cake. The tea-tray was abundantly loaded—I was pleased to see it, I was so hungry; but I was afraid the ladies present might think it vulgarly heaped up. I know they would have done at their own houses; but somehow the heaps disappeared here. I saw Mrs. Jamieson eating seed-cake, slowly and considerately, as she did everything; and I was rather surprised, for I knew she had told us, on the occasion of her last party, that she never had it in her house, it reminded her so much of scented soap. She always gave us Savoy biscuits. However, Mrs. Jamieson was kindly indulgent to Miss Barker's want of knowledge of the customs of high life; and, to spare her feelings, ate three large pieces of seed-cake, with a placid, ruminating expression, not unlike a cow's.

      After tea there was some little demur and difficulty. We were six in number; four could play at Preference, and for the other two there was Cribbage. But all, except myself (I was rather afraid of the Cranford ladies at cards, for it was the most earnest and serious business they ever en­gaged in), were anxious to be of the “pool.”

Notes and exercises:

1.   Both long [o:] and short [o] can be represented by the letter “a”. Group the following words according to the pronunciation of “a”:

all        tall        wander    quarrel     swat         although  yacht ball      fall        wall        appal(l)    swallow     almost     chalk call      pall       small      appalling  also          squash    talk was      wad       stall       enthral(l)  always      squad     walk wash    waddle   quantity  withal       already     wallet      stalk watch   want      quality    swan        altogether  what        false alter     altar      bald       halt         water        wrath       albeit

2.   

      Define the meaning of the following verbs and memorize their spelling: repress, compress, impress, suppress, press, express, oppress, depress, pressurize.

3.   Give derivatives:

Verb             Noun          Adjective    Adverb

judge            ...               ...                ...

legalize         ...               ...                ...

specialize     ...               ...                ...

reconcile       ...               ...                ...

insure           ...               ...                ...

4.   Word study:

malapropos           (French), here: awkward, ill-suited

malapropism          misuse of a word, esp. in mistake for one that resembles it, causing amusement, e.g.: “Sure, if I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs,” instead of “apprehend,” “vernacular,” “arrangement,” and “epithets”; “Come, girls, this gentleman will exhort us,” instead of “escort us.”

seed-cake               a cake with caraway seeds, very popular in England

Cribbage, Preference         games of cards

5.   Translate the following expressions and use them in sentences of your own:

to be on very familiar terms, to be on good terms with, we are not on speaking terms, not on any terms, on easy terms, to bring the enemy to terms, to come to terms, on these terms, in terms of science, in flattering terms, in terms of approval, to keep one’s terms, during term, to serve one’s term, during his term of office, for a term of 10 years, couched in terms (expressed)