cousins of Dick Talbot-Lowry. Thomas went into the Indian Army, and in
India met and married a very charming young lady, Theresa Quinton, a
member of an ancient Catholic family in the North of England, and an
ardent daughter of her Church. In India, a son was born to them, and
Colonel Tom, who adored his wife, remarking that these things were out
of his line, made no objection to her bringing up the son, St.
Lawrence Anthony, in her own religion, and hoped that the matter would
end there. Mrs. Coppinger, however, remembering St. Paul's injunctions
to believing wives and unbelieving husbands, neither stopped nor
stayed her prayers and exhortations, until, just before the birth of a
second child, she had succeeded in inducing Tom Coppinger--(just "to
please her, and for the sake of a quiet life," as he wrote,
apologetically, to his relations and friends, far away in Ireland) to
join her Communion. She then died, and her baby followed her. Colonel
Tom, a very sad and lonely man, came to England and visited St.
Lawrence Anthony at the school selected for him by his mother; then he
returned to his regiment in India, and was killed, within a year of
his wife's death, in a Frontier expedition. He left Larry in the joint
guardianship of his sister, Frederica, and his first cousin, Dick
Talbot-Lowry, with the request that the former would live with the boy
at Coppinger's Court, and that the latter would look after the
property until the boy came of age and could do so himself; he also
mentioned that he wished his son's education to continue on the lines
laid down by his "beloved wife, Theresa."

It must, with regret, be stated, that the relatives and friends in
far-away Ireland, instead of admiring "poor Tom's" fidelity to his
wife's wishes, murmured together that it was very unfortunate that
"poor Theresa" had not died when Larry was born, as, in that case,
this "disastrous change of religion" would not have taken place.