BEFORE LUNCH

The Brandons brought the Thirkell ingenuities to a wide circle of readers, and Before Lunch provides that deftness with trivia known to followers of her earlier books. The tune is the same -- English country, summer entanglements, males to be coddled or harassed, young and middleaged romance -- happy or sad, but never tragic -- and the entourage of neighbors, servants and animals -- with the minor orchestrations of situations into which all of these are landed with high notes of irrelevant conversations by scatterbrained characters or single-minded souls. There is the usual quiet fun -- perhaps not the usual sustained gaiety -- when the Middletons are hosts to a widow and her two stepchildren, and the storm in a teacup they bring in their wake. Not her very, very best --but a charming performance.