sex.

He went off to Lapton in the highest spirits, determined to have a good
time, rejoicing in the prospect of freedom in a way that made his
mother feel that she had been something of an oppressor. She could not
resist the temptation of seeing the last of him, and so they travelled
down together. This time she stayed a couple of days at Lapton. It
was part of Considine's plan to let parents see as much of the place as
they wanted, if only to convince them that they were getting their
money's worth.

Everything that Mrs. Payne saw reassured her. The routine of the house
seemed to be reasonable and healthy. The mornings were devoted to
lessons in the library. After lunch the pupils went out over the
fields or into the woods where Considine instructed them in details of
farming and forestry. Their work was not merely theoretical. They had
to learn to use their hands as well as their brains, to plough a
furrow, or bank a hedge, or dig a pit for mangolds. Considine kept
them busy, and at the same time made them useful to himself. They used
to come in at tea-time flushed with exercise and pleasantly fatigued.
The late afternoon and evening were their own. They played tennis or
racquets, or read books in the library, a long room with many tall
windows that had been set aside for their instruction and leisure.

Mrs. Payne rejoiced to find that their life at Lapton was so full. In
the absence of any idleness that was not well-earned she saw the
highest wisdom of Considine's system; for it seemed to her that her
anxiety for Arthur had probably done him an injustice in depriving him
of a natural outlet for his energies. At Lapton he could scarcely find
time for wickedness.

In this way her admiration for Considine increased. She only regretted
that she had not been able in the past to secure a tutor of his capable
and energetic type. Reviewing the series of languid and futile young
men whom the very best agencies had sent her, she came to the
conclusion that no man of Considine's type could ever have been forced
to accept a tutor's employment. Even in the choice of his pupils she
saw signs of his discrimination. In addition to the two Traceys, whose
delightful manners were undeniable, he had secured two other boys: one
the younger son of an East Anglian peer, and the other a boy whose
father was a colonel in the Indian army. The paragraph in Considine's
advertisement that had first attracted her had made h