Cranford

next four comers were put down immediately to another table; and
presently the tea-trays, which I had seen set out in the storeroom 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 favourite
with all the ladies present. Ruffled brows were smoothed, sharp voices
lowered at his approach. Miss Brown looked ill, and depressed almost to
gloom. Miss Jessie smiled as usual, and seemed nearly as popular as her
father. He immediately and quietly assumed the man’s place in the room;
attended to every one’s wants, lessened the pretty maidservant’s labour
by waiting on empty cups and bread-and-butterless ladies; and yet did it
all in so easy and dignified a manner, and so much as if it were a
matter of course for the strong to attend to the weak, that he was a
true man throughout. He played for threepenny points with as grave an
interest as if they had been pounds; and yet, in all his attention to