I imagine that a few of the gentlefolks of
Cranford were poor, and had some difficulty
in making both ends meet; but they were
like the Spartans, and concealed their smart
under a smiling face. We none of us spoke of
money, because that subject savoured of
commerce and trade, and though some might be
poor, we were all aristocratic. The Cranfordians
had that kindly esprit de corps which made
them overlook all deficiencies in success when
some among them tried to conceal their
poverty. When Mrs. Forrester gave a party
in her baby-house of a dwelling, and the little
maiden disturbed the ladies on the sofa by a
request that she might get the tea-tray out
from underneath, every one took this novel
proceeding as the most natural thing in
the world; and talked on about household
forms and ceremonies, as if we all
believed that our hostess had a regular servants'
hall, second table, with housekeeper and
steward ; instead of the one little charity-
school maiden, whose short ruddy arms could
never have been strong enough to carry the
tray up-stairs, if she had not been assisted in
private by her mistress, who now sate in state,
pretending not to know what cakes were sent
up; though she knew, and we knew, and she
knew that we knew, and we knew that she
knew that we knew, she had been busy all the
morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.

There were one or two consequences arising
from this general but unacknowledged poverty,
and this very much acknowledged gentility,
which were not amiss, and which might be
introduced into many circles of society to their
great improvement. For instance, the inhabitants
of Cranford kept early hours, and clattered
home in their pattens, under the guidance of
a lantern-bearer, about nine o'clock at night;
and the whole town was abed and asleep by
half-past ten. Moreover, it was considered
"vulgar" (a tremendous word in Cranford)
to give anything expensive, in the way of
eatable or drinkable, at the evening entertainments.
Wafer bread-and-butter and sponge-
biscuits were all that the Honourable Mrs.
Jamieson gave; and she was sister-in-law to
the late Earl of Cranford, although she did
practise such "elegant economy."

"Elegant economy!" How naturally one
falls back into the phraseology of Cranford!
There, economy was always "elegant," and
money-spending always "vulgar and ostentatious,"
a sort of sour-grapeism, which made us
very peaceful and satisfied. I never shall forget
the dismay felt when a certain Captain Brown
came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke
about his being poor. Not in a whisper to an
intimate friend, the doors and windows being
previously closed; but, in the public street! in
a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as
a reason for not taking a particular house.
The ladies of Cranford were already rather
moaning over the invasion of their territories
by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay
Captain, and had obtained some situation on a
neighbouring railroad, which had been
vehemently petitioned against by the little town;
and if, in addition to his masculine gender, and
his connexion with the obnoxious railroad, he
was so brazen as to talk of being poor—why!
then, indeed, he must be sent to Coventry.
Death was as true and as common as poverty;
yet people never spoke about that, loud out in
the streets. It was a word not to be
mentioned to ears polite. We had tacitly agreed
to ignore that any with whom we associated
on terms of visiting equality could ever be
prevented by poverty from doing anything
that they wished. If we walked home to or
from a party, it was 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 not 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 Captain Brown 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 up-stairs, 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, 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