His Son succeeded to the Place; he was a grave-looking, orderly young Man, main religious, and skilled in the _Customs of the Manor_. Both the Sisters had great Hopes their Affairs would thrive under his Management. _Betty_'s, indeed, went on well for a while; but, in the End, both of them had Cause to complain, and curse the Day they had bethought them of employing a _Steward_ in their Concerns. He was not so great a Fool as his Father; yet nothing he put his Hand to succeeded. He was _bubbled_ by every _Neighbour_ he dealt with, and choused by every _Tenant_ he trusted. His Word could never be relied on, as he had always some quibble to evade it. His Wife made him hated by the Tenants; and for a finishing Stroke to his undoing, and compleat the Ruin of his _Wards_, he pretended the _Steward_ had a Right to hold Courts without _Juries_, and by his own Authority levy Money for _Repairs_. The Tenants would not endure this Invasion on their Rights, but stoutly opposed it; and, after a hard Struggle, got the better, turned him out of the _Stewardship_, and some of them finding him one Day at a _why-not_, tied him to a Rope, and hanged him in a Frolick. The Office of a _Steward_ was now abolished for a Time, and the elder _Sister_ resolved to take her Affairs entirely into her _own Hands_, and have neither _Steward_ or _Guardian_ for the future. The Condition, indeed, of _both_ was deplorable. There had been nothing during the _late Quarrel_, but Riot and Plunder, Rents unpaid, and Soldiers quartered at Discretion; so that, in order to retrieve their Affairs, it seemed necessary to put things on a _new Footing_, and trust none but themselves to manage them. But whatever they intended mattered but little. Among the Soldiers quartered on them was a bustling Knave, who from a Corporal had come to be a Captain. He was bold as a Lion, and _crafty_ as a Fox. He had cajoled his Soldiers to stand by him; and pretending _Compassion_ for the Sisters, offered, or rather forced himself, to be their _Guardian_. They only complied because they could not help it; and he took more _rule_ over them, than ever _Steward_ or _Guardian_ had done before him. He seemed, indeed, to mend Matters in the Beginning, but, in reality, did _unrepairable_ Damage to _Blanch_, though considerable Services to _Betty_. The Neighbours all around thought they were thriving apace, and began to envy their Greatness. The Reason of which was, that he always took care to have the _Girls_ well dressed, especially when they went a _visiting_, and sent Word before-hand (for he was d----d proud) that all the World should _Cap_ to them as they passed along. He stinted them in every thing else, but _spent_ all he could _rap_ and _run_ to make them _fine_. _Betty_ was _bashful_, and kept pretty much at home; but when _Blanch_ went _abroad_, she made a _flaming_ Appearance, _held_ up her Head among the _Highest_, and _insulted_ the _Proudest_ with her _Braveries_.