r chairs.
They spoke with a faded propriety, dropped their final "g's," and
specialised in the abbreviation "ain't." They stayed for a quarter of
an hour exactly by the French clock on the mantelpiece, contriving, in
this calculated period, to make it quite clear that they were on terms
of intimacy with the Halbertons, and they invariably finished by
inviting the Considines to lunch.

In this way Gabrielle became familiar with a number of dining-rooms
furnished in mahogany and horsehair and hung with opulent studies of
still life in oils and engravings after Mr. Frith. The meal was
usually served by the whiskered coachman, who wore, for the occasion, a
waistcoat decorated with dark blue and yellow stripes, and there was
always cake for lunch. After the port, which generally made her feel
sleepy, Considine would be taken off to see the stables, and Gabrielle
conducted to a walled garden, heavy with the scent of ripening fruit,
where there was no shade but that of huge apple trees, frosted with
American blight, that reminded her, in their passive mellowness, of the
people who owned them. Nothing more violent than archery, in its old
and placid variety, ever invaded the lives of these county families.
If it had not been for the headaches with which their society always
afflicted her, Gabrielle would have been tempted time after time to
scandalise them, but the example of Considine, who was always frigidly
at ease, restrained her, and so she allowed herself to be lulled to
sleep, recovering slowly as they drove back through the green lanes to
Lapton.

Her symptoms of boredom were taken, in this society, for evidence of
her good breeding, and since she was too tired to be scandalous,
Gabrielle became a social success. Her success is important, not
because it changed her in any way, but because it paved the way for the
development by which she became acquainted with Mrs. Payne, and the
most intriguing episode of her life began.

It was notorious that Considine's parochial labours occupied very
little of his time. The parish was small and scattered, Lapton Huish
itself being a mere hamlet, and the neighbouring farmers so soaked in
respectable tradition and isolated from opportunities of vice that
their souls lay in no great danger of damnation. The activities of
Considine were practically limited to his Sunday services, but though
the softness of the climate might eventually have transformed him into
a likeness of t