suggests the
sentimentalist. For a parson he was decidedly a man of the world, with
a good business head, a sense of proportion, and a keen, if deliberate
humour. In matters of sentiment I should imagine him reliable.

Only one other cause for his conduct suggests itself, and that I
believe to be the true explanation. He married Gabrielle Hewish
because he wanted to do so; because he loved her. And that is not
difficult to imagine since he had known her intimately ever since she
was born, had helped and witnessed the whole awakening of her
intelligence; had found in her company his principal diversion; had
watched her growing beauty, and seen its final perfection. He knew her
so well, body and mind, that, whatever might have happened, he could
not help believing in her complete innocence--so well that he could
afford to disregard conventional prejudices in looking at her
misfortune.

It is even possible that he may have dreamed of marrying her before the
misfortune came, waiting, in his leisurely way, for the suitable
moment. At Roscarna he had no great cause to fear any rival in love;
and since an ugly providence had obligingly removed the intruder
Radway, there was no reason why he should not benefit by Radway's
death. Considine was a man of forty, full of vigour and not too old
for passion. The prospect of a fruitful marriage was doubtless part of
the programme which he had mapped out for himself. Nor must it be
forgotten that he was a poor man and Gabrielle her father's only
daughter.

With Gabrielle herself the problem is more difficult still. It is not
easy to imagine her submitting to the embraces of her tutor, however
deep and ardent his affection may have been, within a few months of the
catastrophe that had overwhelmed her first love. We may take it for
certain that she did not then, nor at any time, love Considine. It is
impossible that she should have thought of him in the character of a
lover, though I have little doubt but that she would have preferred him
to any of the swarm of Joyces whom Biddy was ready to produce.

Perhaps she was offered the alternative,--I cannot tell. It is certain
that Jocelyn and Biddy told her, in different ways, that marriage was a
necessity to her virtue, and since she was compelled by threats and
blandishments and entreaties to make a virtue of necessity, she chose,
no doubt the course that was least distasteful to her. One cannot even
be certain, in the lig