the setting sun.

In the hall Gabrielle Considine awaited them. She was dressed in
black--probably she was still in mourning for Jocelyn--with a white
muslin collar such as a widow might have worn. To Mrs. Payne, by an
unconscious personal contrast, she seemed very tall and graceful and
exceedingly well-bred. No doubt Considine had prepared the way for
this impression. On the drive up he had spoken several times of Lord
Halberton, "my wife's cousin." Mrs. Considine's voice was very soft,
with the least hint of Irish in it, an inflection rather than a brogue.
Her hands, her neck and her face were very white. Possibly her skin
seemed whiter because of the blackness of her hair and of her dress and
the beautiful shape of her pale hands. Curiously enough, the chief
impression she made on Mrs. Payne was not the obvious one of youth; and
this shows that Gabrielle, outwardly, at any rate, had changed
enormously in the last year. Mrs. Payne did not know then, and
certainly would never have guessed, that the lady of the house was
under twenty years of age. She only saw a creature full of grace, of
dignity, and of quietness, and she knew that Considine was proud of
these qualities that his wife displayed. There was nothing to suggest
that the pair were not completely happy in their marriage.

After dinner they proceeded to business. They sat together in the
drawing-room, Mrs. Considine busy with her embroidery at a small table
apart, while her husband, capably judicial, begged Mrs. Payne to tell
him the peculiar features of Arthur's case. She found Considine
sympathetic, and the telling so easy that she was able to express
herself naturally in the most embarrassing part of her story.
Considine helped her with small encouragements. Gabrielle said
nothing, bending over her work while she listened. Indeed, she had
scarcely spoken a dozen words since Mrs. Payne's arrival. When she
came to the episode of Arthur's expulsion from the school at
Cheltenham, Considine made an uneasy gesture suggesting that his wife
should retire, and Gabrielle quietly rose.

Mrs. Payne begged her to stay. "It is much better that you should both
know everything," she said. "I want you to realise things at their
worst. It is much better that you should know exactly where we stand."

She wondered afterwards why Considine had suggested that Gabrielle
should go. At first she had taken it for granted that he was merely
considering her own