he other. She
was quite unconscious of it herself, and looked at us with bland
satisfaction. Nor do I think Miss Barker perceived it; for putting
aside the little circumstance that she was not so young as she had
been, she was very much absorbed in her errand, which she delivered
herself of with an oppressive modesty that found vent in endless
apologies.

Miss Betty Barker was the daughter of the old clerk at Cranford who
had officiated in Mr. Jenkyns's time. She and her sister had had
pretty good situations as ladies'-maids, and had saved money enough to
set up a milliner's shop, which had been patronized by the ladies in
the neighborhood. Lady Arley, for instance, would occasionally give
Miss Barkers the pattern of an old cap of hers, which they immediately
copied and circulated among the _elite_ of Cranford. I say the
_elite_, for Miss Barkers had caught the trick of the place, and
piqued themselves upon their "aristocratic connection." They would not
sell their caps and ribbons to any one without a pedigree. Many a
farmer's wife or daughter turned away huffed from Miss Barkers' select
millinery, and went rather to the universal shop, where the profits of
brown soap and moist sugar enabled the proprietor to go straight to
(Paris, he said, until he found his customers too patriotic and
John-Bullish to wear what the Mounseers wore) London, where, as he
often told his customers, Queen Adelaide had appeared only the very
week before in a cap exactly like the one he showed them, trimmed with
yellow and blue ribbons, and had been complimented by King William on
the becoming nature of her head-dress.

Miss Barkers, who confined themselves to truth and did not approve of
miscellaneous customers, throve notwithstanding. They were
self-denying, good people. Many a time have I seen the eldest of them
(she that had been maid to Mrs. Jamieson) carrying out some delicate
mess to a poor person. They only aped their betters in having "nothing
to do" with the class immediately below theirs. And when Miss Barker
died, their profits and income were found to be such that Miss Betty
was justified in shutting up shop and retiring from business. She also
(as I think I have before said) set up her cow,--a mark of
respectability in Cranford almost as decided as setting up a gig is
among some people. She dressed finer than any lady in Cranford, and we
did not wonder at it; for it was understood that she was wearing out
all the bonnets and