Cranford | Page 3

because the night was SO fine, or the
air SO refreshing, not because sedan-chairs were expensive. If we wore
prints, instead of summer silks, it was because we preferred a washing
material; and so on, till we blinded ourselves to the vulgar fact that we
were, all of us, people of very moderate means. Of course, then, we did
not know what to make of a man who could speak of poverty as if it
was not a disgrace. Yet, somehow, Captain Brown made himself
respected in Cranford, and was called upon, in spite of all resolutions to
the contrary. I was surprised to hear his opinions quoted as authority at
a visit which I paid to Cranford about a year after he had settled in the
town. My own friends had been among the bitterest opponents of any
proposal to visit the Captain and his daughters, only twelve months

before; and now he was even admitted in the tabooed hours before
twelve. True, it was to discover the cause of a smoking chimney, before
the fire was lighted; but still Captain Brown walked upstairs, nothing
daunted, spoke in a voice too large for the room, and joked quite in the
way of a tame man about the house. He had been blind to all the small
slights, and omissions of trivial ceremonies, with which he had been
received. He had been friendly, though the Cranford ladies had been
cool; he had answered small sarcastic compliments in good faith; and
with his manly frankness had overpowered all the shrinking which met
him as a man who was not ashamed to be poor. And, at last, his
excellent masculine common sense, and his facility in devising
expedients to overcome domestic dilemmas, had gained him an
extraordinary place as authority among the Cranford ladies. He himself
went on in his course, as unaware of his popularity as he had been of
the reverse; and I am sure he was startled one day when he found his
advice so highly esteemed as to make some counsel which he had given
in jest to be taken in sober, serious earnest.
It was on this subject: An old lady had an Alderney cow, which she
looked upon as a daughter. You could not pay the short quarter of an
hour call without being told of the wonderful milk or wonderful
intelligence of this animal. The whole town knew and kindly regarded
Miss Betsy Barker's Alderney; therefore great was the sympathy and
regret when, in an unguarded moment, the poor cow tumbled into a
lime-pit. She moaned so loudly that she was soon heard and rescued;
but meanwhile the poor beast had lost most of her hair, and came out
looking naked, cold, and miserable, in a bare skin. Everybody pitied the
animal, though a few could not restrain their smiles at her droll
appearance. Miss Betsy Barker absolutely cried with sorrow and
dismay; and it was said she thought of trying a bath of oil. This remedy,
perhaps, was recommended by some one of the number whose advice
she asked; but the proposal, if ever it was made, was knocked on the
head by Captain Brown's decided "Get her a flannel waistcoat and
flannel drawers, ma'am, if you wish to keep her alive. But my advice is,
kill the poor creature at once."
Miss Betsy Barker dried her eyes, and thanked the Captain heartily; she
set to work, and by-and-by all the town turned out to see the Alderney
meekly going to her pasture, clad in dark grey flannel. I have watched

her myself many a time. Do you ever see cows dressed in grey flannel
in London?
Captain Brown had taken a small house on the outskirts of the town,
where he lived with his two daughters. He must have been upwards of
sixty at the time of the first visit I paid to Cranford after I had left it as a
residence. But he had a wiry, well-trained, elastic figure, a stiff military
throw-back of his head, and a springing step, which made him appear
much younger than he was. His eldest daughter looked almost as old as
himself, and betrayed the fact that his real was more than his apparent
age. Miss Brown must have been forty; she had a sickly, pained,
careworn expression on her face, and looked as if the gaiety of youth
had long faded out of sight. Even when young she must have been plain
and hard- featured. Miss Jessie Brown was ten years younger than her
sister, and twenty shades prettier. Her face was round and dimpled.
Miss Jenkyns once said, in a passion against Captain Brown (the cause
of which I will tell you presently), "that she thought it was time for
Miss Jessie to leave off her