disposition; and indeed the attorney himself was not lacking in some
urbanity of character, though few guessed it, for he kept all that was
best in himself hidden under an unlovely crust. His better instincts
took the shape of family affection. Damaris Blanchard and he were the
last branches of one of the innumerable families of Ford to be found in
Devon, and he had no small regard for his only living sister. His annual
holiday from business--a period of a fortnight, sometimes extended to
three weeks if the weather was more than commonly fair--he spent
habitually at Chagford; and Will on these occasions devoted his leisure
to his uncle, drove him on the Moor, and made him welcome. Will, indeed,
was a favourite with Mr. Ford, and the lad's high spirits, real
ignorance of the world, and eternal grave assumption of wisdom even
tickled the man of business into a sort of dry cricket laughter upon
occasions. When, therefore, a fortnight after young Blanchard's
mysterious disappearance, Joel Ford arrived at his sister's cottage for
the annual visit, he was as much concerned as his nature had power to
make him at the news.

For three weeks he stayed, missing the company of his nephew not a
little; and his residence in Chagford had needed no special comment save
for an important incident resulting therefrom.

Phoebe Lyddon it was who in all innocence and ignorance set rolling a
pebble that finally fell in thundering avalanches; and her chance word
was uttered at her father's table on an occasion when John and Martin
Grimbal were supping at Monks Barton.

The returned natives, and more especially the elder, had been much at
the mill since their reappearance. John, indeed, upon one pretext or
another, scarcely spent a day without calling. His rough kindness