would like to come back to Overton with
Arthur? The rest and change would do her good, and it would be
interesting for Gabrielle, who had seen so little of England, to visit
Cotswold. Mrs. Payne promised to take great care of her. She gave her
invitation in a way that suggested that it was an attempt to make
amends for her suspicions. It conveyed at the same time an implicit
confidence and an anxiety to please.

Considine tumbled headlong into her trap. He thanked her for her
invitation, saying that he had no objection, but that Gabrielle, of
course, must decide for herself. His tone made it clear that such a
visit must be regarded as a condescension. The Halbertons, he said,
had been begging Gabrielle for a long time to spend a week with them,
but she was devoted to Lapton.

"At any rate I may ask her?" said Mrs. Payne.

"Certainly, certainly--you'll find her in the garden."

Mrs. Payne was in some doubt as to what Gabrielle's answer would be.

She moved to the proposal obliquely, feeling like a conspirator, and
one so unused to conspiracy that her manner was bound to betray her.
They began by talking about the gardens at Overton, the beauty of
Cotswold stone, the essential difference of her country from that in
which Lapton lay.

"You can't know England," she said, "until you've seen the Vale of
Evesham."

She didn't care twopence ha'penny for the Vale of Evesham--she was just
talking for time. Gabrielle listened to her very quietly, and Mrs.
Payne took her silence for evidence that she was playing her hand
badly. This flustered her. She became conscious of the fact that
nature had built her too roughly for diplomacy. Not daring to hedge
any longer she blurted out her invitation, and Gabrielle, instantly
delighted, accepted, transforming herself, in Mrs. Payne's mind from a
subtle designing creature into something very like a victim. So, for
one moment she appeared; but in the next Mrs. Payne felt nothing but
exultation at the successful beginning of her plan.

"Arthur has told me that there are nightingales at Overton," said
Gabrielle dreamily. "I wonder if I shall hear one? There are no
nightingales in Ireland or in this part of England." And although Mrs.
Payne could hardly accept an interest in ornithology for explanation of
her readiness to come to Overton, she was quick to promise that
nightingales should be in full song at the next weekend.

Thus having laid her plans, she resisted, t