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The young fellow himself did not hesitate long before accepting the offer. He was already tired of living in the country without occupation or interest or very much money, and he believed—erroneously—that the living of Leasan would lead to promotion in the Church of England. He was impressed by that Church itself, by its discreet and godly order, by the solemn cadences of its liturgy, to which he came almost as a stranger after twenty years' exile. At one time he had thought of joining the Romish Church, but had been dissuaded by his family and the sudden turn of affairs toward the King's restoration. Now he was glad that he had not done so; though for several years after their return the Alards had to bear the suspicion of Popery, Charles Alard having brought back with him a young French wife who never came to church, but, it was rumoured, received the ministrations of wandering Jesuits.

Gervase himself had married soon after his ordination—Mary Ann Pye, the daughter of a Kentish Squire who had returned to his estates at much the same time as the Alards. She had been a good wife to him in all save her failure to bear a son. This had not mattered at first, but when Charles's boy died soon after his father's succession to the title and estates, he had grown anxious about it. "Let it be a boy this time, child," he would say to his wife on intimate occasions, and she would answer solemnly, "I'll do my best, dear heart," and give him a girl as sure as clockwork.