However, at the time of young Mallard's coming under his notice he had been married about a year.

Mrs.Doran came from Manchester; she was very beautiful, but had slight education, and before long Sowerby Bridge remarked that the husband was too often away from home.
Doran and the elder Mallard, having once met, were disposed to sec more of each other; in spite of the difference of social standing, they became intimates, and Mr.Mallard had at length some one with whom he found pleasure in conversing.

He did not long enjoy the new experience.
In the winter that followed, he died of a cold contracted on one of his walks when the hills were deep in snow.
Doran remained the firm friend of the family.

Local talk had inspired Mrs.Mallard with a prejudice against him, but substantial services mitigated this, and the widow was in course of time less uneasy at her son's being practically under the guardianship of this singular man of business.

Mallard, after preliminary training, was sent to the studio of a young artist whom Doran greatly admired, Cullen Banks, then struggling for the recognition he was never to enjoy, death being beforehand with him.