and his wife were dead; Newtake at present stood without a tenant; and
Mrs. Blanchard possessed no near relations save her children and one
elder brother, Joel, to whom had passed their parent's small savings.

Timothy Blanchard continued a wandering existence for the space of five
years after his marriage; then he sold his caravans, settled in
Chagford, bought the cottage by the river, rented some market-garden
land, and pursued his busy and industrious way. Thus he prospered
through ten more years, saving money, developing a variety of schemes,
letting out on hire a steam thresher, and in various other ways adding
to his store. The man was on the high road to genuine prosperity when
death overtook him and put a period to his ambitions. He was snatched
from mundane affairs leaving numerous schemes half developed and most of
his money embarked in various enterprises. Unhappily Will was too young
to continue his father's work, and though Mrs. Blanchard's brother, Joel
Ford, administered the little estate to the best of his power, much had
to be sacrificed. In the sequel Damaris found herself with a cottage, a
garden, and an annual income of about fifty pounds a year. Her son was
then twelve years of age, her daughter eighteen months younger. So she
lived quietly and not without happiness, after the first sorrow of her
husband's loss was in a measure softened by time.

Of Mr. Joel Ford it now becomes necessary to speak. Combining the duties
of attorney, house-agent, registrar of deaths, births, and marriages,
and receiver of taxes and debts, the man lived a dingy life at Newton
Abbot. Acid, cynical, and bald he was, very dry of mind and body, and
but ten years older than Mrs. Blanchard, though he looked nearer seventy
than sixty. To the Newton mind Mr. Ford was associated only with Quarter
Day--that black, recurrent cloud on the horizon of every poor man's
life. He dwelt with an elderly housekeeper--a widow of genial