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-bye 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 dimples, and not always be trying
to look like a child." It was true there was
something child-like in her face; and there
will be, I think, till she dies, though she
should live to a hundred. Her eyes were
large blue wandering eyes, looking straight at
you ; her nose was unformed and snub, and
her lips were red and dewy; she wore her
hair, too, in little rows of curls, which
heightened this appearance. I do not know if
she was pretty or not; but I liked her face,
and so did everybody, and I do not think she
could help her dimples. She had something
of her father's jauutiness of gait and manner;
and any female observer might detect a slight
difference in the attire of the two sisters—
that of Miss Jessie being about two pounds
per annum more expensive than Miss Brown's.
Two pounds was a large sum in Captain
Brown's annual disbursements.

Such was the impression made upon me by
the Brown family, when I first saw them
altogether in Cranford church. The Captain
I had met before—on the occasion of the
smoky chimney, which he had cured by some
simple alteration in the flue. In church, he
held his double eye-glass to his eyes during
the Morning Hymn, and then lifted up his
head erect, and sang out loud and joyfully. He
made the responses louder than the clerk—an
old man with a piping feeble voice, who, I
think, felt aggrieved at the Captain's sonorous
bass, and quavered higher and higher in
consequence.

On coming out of church, the brisk Captain
paid the most gallant attention to his two
daughters. He nodded and smiled to his
acquaintances; but he shook hands with none
until he had helped Miss Brown to unfurl
her umbrella, had relieved her of her prayer-
book, and had waited patiently till she, with
trembling nervous hands, had taken up her
gown to walk through the wet roads.

I wondered what the Cranford ladies did
with Captain Brown at their parties. We
had often rejoiced, in former days, that there
was no gentleman to be attended to, and to
find conversation for, at the card-parties. We
had congratulated ourselves upon the snugness
of the evenings; and, in our love for
gentility and distaste of mankind, we had
almost persuaded ourselves that to be a man
was to be "vulgar;" so that when I found my
friend and hostess, Miss Jenkyns, was going to
have a party in my honour, and that Captain
and the Miss Browns were invited, I wondered
much what would be the course of the evening.
Card-tables, with green baize tops, were set
out by day-light, just as usual; it was the
third week in November, so the evenings
closed in about four. Candles, and clean
packs of cards, were arranged on each table.
The fire was made up, the neat maid-servant
had received her last directions; and, there we
stood dressed in our best, each with a candle-
lighter in our hands, ready to dart at the
candles as soon as the first knock came.
Parties in Cranford were solemn festivities,
making the ladies feel gravely elated, as they
sat together in their best dresses. As soon as
three had arrived, we sat down to
"Preference," I being the unlucky fourth. The
next four comers were put down immediately
to another table; and, presently, the tea-trays,
which I had seen set out in the store-room as
I passed in the morning, were placed each on
the middle of a card-table. The china was
delicate egg-shell; the old-fashioned silver
glittered with polishing; but the eatables
were of the slightest description. While
the trays were yet on the tables, Captain and
the Miss Browns came in; and I could see,
that somehow or other, the Captain was a