gage cart with his hat-box in the drive. Then,
poor dear, he met this widow at a dance at Belvoir. I begged mother to
let me go and stay with the Pagets at Somerby, but she said it would be
undignified. He was killed in the Chitral a year later. I felt I must
tell you, dear, because I can't help feelin' a little envious of your
happy marriage. Dr. Considine is such a man ... and I always feel it's
so safe marryin' a clergyman."

The idea of envying her marriage with Considine was so ridiculous that
Gabrielle couldn't repress an inexcusable smile, but Lady Barbara cut
short her blushing apology. "I don't begrudge you your happiness, my
dear," she said.

Seeing Lady Barbara sitting opposite to her with her thin arms sticking
straight out of a camisole, and two plaits of hair pathetically
trailing one on either side of her narrow forehead, Gabrielle was
suddenly overwhelmed with the consciousness of her own youth--not only
that, but her amazing difference in temperament from these people of
her own blood. Retiring from her cousin's chaste kisses to her own
room, she stood for a long while in front of her mirror, tinglingly
aware of her freshness and beauty and vitality. Considine, emerging
from his dressing-room, found her there.

"Vanity, vanity!" he said, taking her in his arms and kissing her.
Gabrielle suddenly thought how glad she would be to hand him over to
the admiring Lady Barbara. She remembered the chill kiss of her
cousin, and then the kiss of Considine. Neither of them, she decided,
was a real kiss.

The new term began on the twenty-fifth of January. Gabrielle had
awaited it with a subdued excitement. When the day came, she compelled
herself to appear more placid than usual. It was a sunny morning of
the kind that often gives a feeling of spring to the Devon winter, a
morning full of promise. Considine had suggested that she should drive
into Totnes and do some shopping before meeting the train from the
Midlands, but she would not do so. All morning she made herself busy
in the house, and later in the day, hearing the wheels of the wagonette
on the drive, she slipped out into the garden to visit a border where
the crocus spears were pushing through the soil. She could not explain
her own sudden shyness. She was tremulous, tremulous with life. There
was a smell of spring in the air. Arthur came out to find her in the
garden. His eyes glowed with the pleasure of seeing her again, but she