ide in the company of Radway. The dream always
ended in the same way, with a fall, a laugh, a shattering report, and a
flash of light which meant that she was awake.

In her disordered eyes the woods of Roscarna, the river, and the lake
took on a melancholy tinge. Though this aspect of them was new to her,
it is hardly strange that she should have seen them thus, for the
beauty of Roscarna is really of an elegiac kind, an autumnal beauty of
desertion and of decay. As for Slieveannilaun, she dared not look at
it.

Jocelyn tried hard to cheer her up. With an effort he whipped up
enough energy to take her out with his dogs and his gun, until her look
of horror made him suspect that the sound of a gunshot was a nightmare
to her, as indeed it was, reminding her of many dreams and one
unforgettable reality. She did her best to hide this from him, for she
saw that he was really trying to be kind.

Considine also tried to interest her in new things and to distract her
mind. His methods were tactful. He knew perfectly well that the
official manner of condolence that had gone down so well with the
Radways wouldn't do for her. He just treated her as the child that he
knew her to be, trying to induce her to join in a game of pretending
that nothing had happened. Gabrielle realised his humane attempt from
the first and even, for a time, tried to play up to him, but the affair
ended disastrously in a flood of bitter, uncontrollable tears for which
neither the parson nor the man could offer any remedy. It seemed to
him that this was a woman's job, and so he and Jocelyn met in solemn
consultation with Biddy Joyce.

At this point an easy solution seemed to offer itself in an invitation
from the Halbertons. They had heard all the details of the affair from
Radway's people and wrote inviting Gabrielle to stay with them in Devon
for a month. The two men prepared the bait most carefully, but when
their plan was disclosed to her, Gabrielle rejected it with an unusual
degree of passion, imploring them to leave her alone ... only to leave
her alone.

They resigned her to the care of Biddy, who had always considered it
her proper function and privilege to deal with the affair. She set
about it clumsily but with confidence, tempting Gabrielle to eat with
carefully prepared surprises, obviously humouring her in everything she
did. From the very first she had viewed the Radway affair with
suspicion, and now she found it difficu