- [Mary assisted Dr Harrison in setting Jem Hearne's broken arm]
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Dr Harrison was full of praise for you. He said you were the equal of a man.
- Mary Smith: Did he?
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: And I corrected him. No woman is the equal of a man - she is his superior in every single case.
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: Miss Pole, have pity. The poor girl is distraught. And well might we all be with Jem Hearne dead and the town without a carpenter.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Speculation is the enemy of calm.
- [Mary has brought oranges as a present for Matty and Deborah]
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: I would prefer it if I did not enjoy oranges. Consuming them is a most incommodious business.
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: There is not such a lot of juice, Deborah dear - only when they are sliced with a knife.
- Mary Smith: At home we make a little hole in our oranges and we suck them.
- [Deborah looks horrified]
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: That is the way I like to take them best, but Deborah says it is vulgar and altogether too redolent of a ritual undertaken by little babies. My sister does not care for the expression
- [whispers]
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: "suck".
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: [primly] We will repair to our rooms... and consume our fruit in solitude.
- [embarrassed, Deborah gets up and leaves the table]
- [Mrs Forrester and Miss Pole were soaking some lace in buttermilk to improve its colour but Mrs Forrester's cat has just swallowed the lace while drinking the milk. Mrs Jamieson follows the women as they race through the street with the cat in a basket]
- Mrs. Jamieson: [shouting from her sedan chair] Mrs Forrester! Whatever has occurred?
- Mrs. Forrester: [frantically] It's my lace, Mrs Jamieson! My best lace!
- Miss Pole: [even more frantically] Which was made by nuns, last century, and you cannot get its like for love nor money any more, even though they have emancipated the Catholics!
- Mrs. Jamieson: What's happened to it?
- Mrs. Forrester: It's in the basket. In pussy's insides.
- Miss Pole: We are on our way to purchase "a compound".
- [Mary Smith is coming to stay with Matty and Deborah Jenkyns and they are preparing her bedroom]
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: Ought we to light a fire, do you suppose?
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: [horrified] A fire? Our guest gave us a deal of information in her letter, but I saw no mention of her being ill.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Jem Hearne has had nothing but jelly and egg wine for a week. If the bones are to knit, some solid food is needed.
- Mary Smith: Does rice pudding count as solid food?
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Martha made this - it could be eaten with a fork!
- [Lady Ludlow is interviewing Margaret Gidman who is applying to be a maid]
- Lady Ludlow: What is your father's occupation.
- Margaret Gidman: He's a cooper, madam. I've been accustomed to helping him.
- Lady Ludlow: To make his barrels?
- Margaret Gidman: [proudly] No, to cast up his accounts. And I taught myself to read, and write a bold clear hand. I can...
- Lady Ludlow: Enough! Margaret, your parents have served you ill by not stopping you from meddling in this manner. If you can read and write I cannot possibly take you into my employ.
- Lady Ludlow: [to herself] You're fit only for trade.
- [Lady Ludlow walks off, discussing Margaret with Mr Carter]
- Lady Ludlow: Mr Carter, did you know that she was equipped beyond her station?
- Mr. Carter: It is becoming common for the lowest class to have some education.
- Lady Ludlow: The more common it becomes, the less I can condone it. Dissatisfaction will result as it did in France and the proper order of the world will be undone. You do not recall, I think, the reign of terror, Mr Carter. I had cousins in Paris and the knowledge of their fate will haunt me all my days.
- Mr. Carter: Margaret Gidman is not blessed with a great deal of advantage.
- Lady Ludlow: I am most concerned with the lot of those less fortunate. At my charitable school the girls are taught to serve and to know their prayers. That is all that is necessary to fit them for the world.
- [a young mother has fallen over in the street and Captain Brown has helped her to her feet]
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: I don't object to his helping her up - it's an act of Christian kindness. But to take her arm and offer to escort her home shows a *revolting* want of decorum.
- Mary Smith: [teasing Deborah] Perhaps Captain Brown has been reading too much Dickens.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: I think it altogether likely. Vulgar sentiment is so contageous.
- Dr. Morgan: All the rest will know the news by tea time.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Or sooner, Dr. Morgan. This is Cranford.
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: There will be a great deal to occupy your pen. I regret that you missed the incident just last week. A wagon of bricks had cause to drive down King Street and became lodged with a pit cart headed the opposite way.
- Mary Smith: Were people hurt?
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: No no no no, but there was talk of summoning the constable.
- Caroline Tomkinson: Sister, has something occurred?
- Miss Tomkinson: I think it likely; Miss Pole is gesticulating.
- Miss Pole: [referring to the maid] Mrs Forrester, with what do you nourish that girl?
- Mrs. Forrester: Only ordinary meat, cooked plain.
- Miss Pole: You've fed her 'til she's fit to pull a plough, and this is a dainty house.
- Mrs. Jamieson: [to the footmen carrying her sedan chair] Turn yourselves around; there are some ladies running!
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: If I allow her to do as she would wish she would be in contravention of all polite codes. What will people think of her? And worse, what will be said?
- Lady Ludlow: I am most concerned with the lot of those less fortunate. At my charitable school the girls are taught to serve and to know their prayers. That is all that is necessary to fit them for the world.
- Miss Octavia Pole: Young man! Out of our way! We are in the throes of an exceptional emergency!
- Dr. Harrison: Is someone in need of medical attention?
- Miss Octavia Pole: This is no occasion for sport! There is lace at stake!
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: Well, have you the leisure to speak to all of your patients in person, before the new young gentleman arrives?
- Dr. Morgan: I'm afraid I have not, but I have had occasion to inform Miss Pole.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Miss Pole?
- Dr. Morgan: I shall repair to my consulting room to write to all the rest, and they will know the news by teatime.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Or sooner, Dr. Morgan.
- Jem Hearne: I'm a carpenter. If I lose my arm, I lose the thing I am. Now, will I lose it?
- Dr. Harrison: No.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Dr. Harrison was full of praise for you. He said you were the equal of a man.
- Mary Smith: Did he?
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Yes. And I corrected him. No woman is the equal of a man. She is his superior, in every single case.
- Martha: Miss Jessie Brown's in the hall.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: Miss Jessie Brown's in the hall, *Madam*.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: [Opening a gift from Captain Brown] Oh, Captain Brown. This is highly individual.
- Captain Brown: It's a coal shovel. Manufactured from oak, by myself.
- Miss Matty Jenkyns: Oh, sister. A thing we have wished for for an age.
- Captain Brown: Miss Deborah, I hope you will accept it. A token of my gratitude.
- Miss Deborah Jenkyns: I assure you, sir. No such token is required. We are no longer merely neighbors. We are friends.