She always had supplies handy of arnica,

sticking plaster,

and rags for cut fingers,

and would toil away patiently mending long rents in small knickerbockers or darning holes in stockings and jerseys.

Giles and Basil went daily to a branch establishment of Rodenhurst, kept by Miss Roscoe for boys under twelve;

and Martin learned his letters at home and trotted about the house and parish in Beatrice’s wake.

He was a sweet little scamp and the apple of her eye,

for she had brought him up from babyhood,

but she sometimes felt it would be an intense relief when he was old enough to go to school with the others.

For seven years the Gascoynes had lived at the little parsonage at Skelwick Bay.