and you know it as well as anybody. He has so little common
sense."

But Chris flamed up in an instant. Nothing the man's cranky temper could
do had power to irritate her long. Nothing he might say concerning
himself or her annoyed her for five minutes; but, upon the subject of
her brother, not even from Clem did Chris care to hear a disparaging
word or unfavourable comment. And this criticism, of all others,
levelled against Will angered her to instant bitter answer before she
had time to measure the weight of her words.

"'Common sense'! Perhaps you'll be so kind as to give Will Blanchard a
li'l of your awn--you being so rich in it. Best look at home, and see
what you can spare!"

So the lovers' quarrel which had been steadily brewing under the
sunshine now bubbled over and lowered thunder-black for the moment, as
such storms will.

Clement Hicks, perfectly calm now that his sweetheart's temper was gone,
marched off; and Chris, slamming the cottage door, vanished, without
taking any further leave of him than that recorded in her last
utterance.

CHAPTER II

NEWTAKE FARM

Clement Hicks told the truth when he said that Mrs. Blanchard fell
something short of her usual sound judgment and sagacity in the matter
of Will's enterprise. The home of childhood is often apt enough to
exercise magic, far-reaching attraction, and even influence a mind for
the most part unsentimental. To Damaris the thought of her son winning
his living where her father had done so was pleasant and in accordance
with eternal fitness. Not without emotion did she accompany Will to
Newtake Farm while yet the proposed bargain awaited completion; not
without strange awakenings in the dormant recesses of her memory did
Will's mother pass and pass again through the scenes of her earliest
days. From the three stone steps, or "upping stock," at the farmhouse
door, whereat a thousand times she had seen her father mount his horse,
to the environment of the farmyard; from the strange, winding staircase
of solid granite that connected upper and lower storeys, to each mean
chamber in Newtake, did Mrs. Blanchard's eyes roam thoughtfully amid the
ghosts of recollections. Her girl's life returned and the occasional
bright days gleamed forth again, vivid by contrast with the prevailing
grey. So active became thought that to relieve her mind she spoke to
Will.

"The li'l chamber over the door was mine," she said; "an' your poor
uncle had the next.