Hackit, Mrs.

A sharp-tongued, very kind-hearted and benevolent woman with the courage of her opinions. "Mrs. Hackit declines cream; she has so long abstained from it with an eye to the weekly buttermoney, that abstinence, wedded to habit, has begotten aversion. She is a thin woman with a chronic liver-complaint, which would have secured her Mr. Pilgrim's entire regard and unreserved good word, even if he had not been in awe of her tongue, which was as sharp as his own lancet. She has brought her knitting—no frivolous fancy knitting, but a substantial woollen stocking; the click-click of her knitting-needles is the running accompaniment to all her conversation, and in her utmost enjoyment of spoiling a friend's self-satisfaction, she was never known to spoil a stocking." Although, in her blunt way, she tells Mr. Barton of her disapproval when he allows the Countess to quarter herself on him, she is a true friend to him and his family and a great help to him and Milly in their time of trouble. She is present at Milly's death. The original of Mrs. Hackit was Mrs. Robert Evans, George Eliot's mother. Mrs. Evans was an intimate friend of Mrs. Emma Gwyther ("Milly Barton") and the picture of Mrs. Hackit's relation to Milly Barton is true except in the detail of her being with Milly during Milly's last illness, as Mrs. Evans (" Mrs. Hackit ") died a few months before Mrs. Gwyther ("Milly"). (See Blind, George Eliot, p. 14; Cooke, George Eliot, p. 5, 281 ; Deakin, Early Life of George Eliot, p. 126.)

<em>The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton</em>

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