tapleford, on which he lived, in the splendid old mansion now pulled
down; likewise estates at Marlott, estates near Sherton Abbas, nearly all
the borough of Millpool, and many properties near Ivell. Indeed, I can't
call to mind half his landed possessions, and I don't know that it
matters much at this time of day, seeing that he's been dead and gone
many years. It is said that when he bought an estate he would not decide
to pay the price till he had walked over every single acre with his own
two feet, and prodded the soil at every point with his own spud, to test
its quality, which, if we regard the extent of his properties, must have
been a stiff business for him.

At the time I am speaking of he was a man over eighty, and his son was
dead; but he had two grandsons, the eldest of whom, his namesake, was
married, and was shortly expecting issue. Just then the grandfather was
taken ill, for death, as it seemed, considering his age. By his will the
old man had created an entail (as I believe the lawyers call it),
devising the whole of the estates to his elder grandson and his issue
male, failing which, to his younger grandson and his issue male, failing
which, to remoter relatives, who need not be mentioned now.

While old Timothy Petrick was lying ill, his elder grandson's wife,
Annetta, gave birth to her expected child, who, as fortune would have it,
was a son. Timothy, her husband, through sprung of a scheming family,
was no great schemer himself; he was the single one of the Petricks then
living whose heart had ever been greatly moved by sentiments which did
not run in the groove of ambition; and on this account he had not married
well, as the saying is; his wife having been the daughter of a family of
no better beginnings than his own; that is to say, her father was a
country townsman of the professional class. But she was a very pretty
woman, by all accounts, and her husband had seen, courted, and married
her in a high tide of infatuation, after a very short acquaintance, and
with very little knowledge of her heart's history. He had never found
reason to regret his choice as yet, and his anxiety for her recovery was
great.

She was supposed to be out of danger, and herself and the child
progressing well, when there was a change for the worse, and she sank so
rapidly that she was soon given over. When she felt that she was about
to leave him, Annetta sent for her husband, and, on his speedy entry and
assur