harp wits, showed possibilities of doing them credit. As soon as
the aged Dr. Harrow had been bundled out, the establishment of the
Considines became a game as entertaining to Lady Halberton in the
sphere of religious culture, as chemical experiments were to her
husband in that of root-crops--with the delightful difference that
human souls ran away with much less money than mangolds.

While the Rectory at Lapton was having its roof repaired, its walls
painted, and the fungus that grew in the cupboards of old Canon
Harrow's bedroom removed, the Considines were housed at Halberton and
instructed in the family tradition. In the case of Dr. Considine--his
honeymoon activities had pulled off the degree in divinity--this was
easy, for he had spent his childhood on a feudal estate in Wiltshire
and his politics were therefore identical with Lord Halberton's. With
Gabrielle, whom Lady Halberton took in hand, the process was more
difficult. She couldn't, at first, quite catch the Halberton air, but,
being an admirable mimic, she soon tumbled into it. The clothes with
which Lady Halberton supplied her helped her to realise the character
that she was expected to assume. Sometimes she felt so pleased with
her performance that she was tempted to overdo it and suddenly found
herself presenting a caricature of Halberton manners that was so acute
as to be cruel. And sometimes, when she felt that she couldn't keep it
up, she would suddenly drop the whole pretence and relapse into the
insinuating brogue of Biddy Joyce; an amazing trick that she employed
with scandalous effect in later years. But although she occasionally
laughed at it, Gabrielle found the ease and luxury of Halberton House
very much to her taste. She lost her thin and anxious expression and
became a great favourite, not only with Lady Halberton, but also with
the old gentleman and Lady Barbara, the elder daughter, who was still
unmarried and likely to remain so.

After six weeks at Halberton the Considines moved into the Rectory at
Lapton, a square, solid building, endowed with luxuriant creepers and
protected on the side that faced the prevailing wind and the roadway,
with a covering of hung slates. On the three other sides lay a garden
which had been too much for Canon Harrow and his gardener Hannaford.
Both of them had been old and withered, and the tremendous vitality of
the green things that grew in that rich red soil had overcome all their
efforts at repr