SQUIRE DAVENPORT'S FINANCIAL OPERATION Squire Davenport was a thoroughly respectable man in the estimation of the community.

That such a man was capable of defrauding a poor widow, counting on her ignorance, would have plunged all his friends and acquaintances into the profoundest amazement.
Yet this was precisely what the squire had done.
Mr.Barclay, who had prospered beyond his wife's knowledge, found himself seven years before in possession of a thousand dollars in hard cash.

Knowing that the squire had a better knowledge of suitable investments than he, he went to him one day and asked advice.

Now, the squire was fond of money.

When he saw the ample roll of bank notes which his neighbor took from his wallet, he felt a desire to possess them.