na 
 
 IU 
 
 / 
 
 WALTER 
 CAMP-&- 
 
 BROOKS
 
 DRIVES AND PUTS
 
 HER HKAKT WAS HKATIM, I. IKK A SLKDGE-H AMMER." 
 
 (See frige 38.)
 
 Drives and Puts 
 
 A Book of Golf Stories 
 
 By 
 Walter Camp 
 
 and 
 
 Lilian Brooks 
 
 Boston 
 L. C. Page and Company 
 
 (Incorporated) 
 1899 
 
 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY. LOS ANGELE?
 
 Copyright, 1899 
 BY L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY 
 
 (INCORI'ORATBD) 
 
 Colonial }prrss : 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co 
 Boston, U. S. A.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. "MAKE OR BREAK" . . . .11 
 
 II. SAMMY 35 
 
 III. THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL ... 51 
 
 IV. A MATTER OF HONOUR ... 69 
 V. THE SECOND LESSON .... 99 
 
 VI. ONE OFF Two 129 
 
 VII. DOING SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 151 
 
 VIII. A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN . . . 175 
 
 IX. THE LADY AND THE Cow . . .191 
 
 X. THE CONVERSION OF ST. OURS . . 209 
 
 XI. AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY . . . 223
 
 MAKE OR BREAK"
 
 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 
 
 " A ND to think that I must leave all this 
 ^~V simply to earn my daily bread. It's 
 wrong, anyway. ' Daily bread ' should 
 grow on trees everywhere, well shaped, 
 and of engaging lightness, also baked to 
 a tempting brown." 
 
 Jack Sturgis stood on the porch of Mrs. 
 Clark's house, bag in hand, ready to drive 
 to the station. His heart was rebelling 
 at the thought of taking the city and its 
 sultriness in exchange for that sharp, salty 
 morning breeze, that was already stirring 
 the leaves. Just then Patty Clark, his 
 eighteen-year-old half-cousin, stepped out
 
 12 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 of the door, looking so cool and tempting 
 that Jack's temper rose still higher. 
 
 " I'll leave my clubs in your charge, 
 Patty," he added, as he jumped into the 
 cart, "and woe betide you if anything 
 happens to them. They are the apple of 
 my eye. What a little duffer you are ! 
 Seven whole days in the week with noth- 
 ing to do, five feet six in your stocking 
 feet, and an arm that should drive a ball 
 to kingdom come. Instead of making use 
 of your blessings you sit around from 
 morning until night in useless fluffy 
 things, embroidering centrepieces for the 
 table." 
 
 " I do not wear fluffy things and I do 
 not embroider centrepieces," said Patty, 
 in sweeping, indignant denial. 
 
 "Well, if you don't you ought to," 
 replied Jack, calmly. " Have some one 
 meet me at the 5.09 on Friday, will you ? " 
 
 " Oh, are you coming down ? " asked 
 Patty, in surprise. 
 
 Jack turned and looked at her. 
 
 " Coming down ? Of course I'm com- 
 ing down. Don't I always come ? "
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 13 
 
 " I didn't hear mother ask you, so I 
 thought " 
 
 "You thought I might take the hint. 
 Perhaps I'm not wanted," he commented, 
 slowly. " I dare say you will have two or 
 three men on your hands without count- 
 ing me." 
 
 " Probably," answered Patty, coolly. 
 
 " Well," said Jack, with sudden exasper- 
 ation, " I'm coming down, wanted or not 
 wanted, this time, afterwards, we'll see. 
 Don't forget the 5.09, will you ? " 
 
 Patty watched the runabout as it disap- 
 peared rapidly down the road. Her blue 
 eyes still flashed wrathfully, and a diminu- 
 tive frown marred the sweetness of her 
 brow. 
 
 " Fluffy things ! " she said, half under 
 her breath, as she looked down at her trim 
 shirt-waist and mannish little boots. 
 
 She turned, and, slowly entering the 
 great square living-room, sat down medi- 
 tatively with her elbow on her knee and 
 her chin in the palm of her hand. Her 
 absent gaze wandered over the sweep of 
 lawn, the distant sea, the tempting, bright-
 
 14 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 cushioned seats on the piazza outside, 
 and finally rested upon Jack's caddy-bag, 
 thrown carelessly down on the window- 
 seat near the door. "I must put those 
 clubs away, or some of the boys will bor- 
 row them," she thought, with a relenting 
 smile, and, rising, started to carry the bag 
 to her room. 
 
 " Nine," she counted, half aloud, " nine 
 mysterious, deadly looking things just to 
 send a poor little ball a few feet. That 
 is as far as it usually goes," defiantly, 
 "although Jack does think he can play. 
 Centrepieces ! " she added, her thoughts 
 flashing back to the unpardonable insult. 
 "I would just like to show his Mightiness 
 that I am not the useless, fluffy creature 
 he takes me for. He is really getting 
 dreadfully spoiled. That's the worst of 
 platonic friendships. They're only pla- 
 tonic when there is no one else. It's a 
 fearful strain to keep more than two going 
 at the same time." She started again to 
 carry the clubs up-stairs, when a sudden 
 thought struck her motionless, and a 
 gleam of mischief danced in her eyes.
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 15 
 
 "I'll do it," she cried, and, glancing 
 around to see that she was quite alone, 
 she took two clubs from Jack's caddy-bag, 
 a lofter and a driver. The remaining 
 clubs she put in the coat closet, and, 
 helping herself to some old balls she saw 
 lying on a shelf, she caught up her hat, 
 and started toward the beach. It was still 
 very early, and the shades in the windows 
 of the cottages around about were down. 
 The devoted ones who had risen in order 
 to " speed the parting guest " had not 
 returned from the station, and Patty met 
 no one. A brisk twenty minutes' walk 
 brought her to a gleaming stretch of sand. 
 On the left, great dunes rose high above 
 her, and at her feet the surf broke gently 
 with a sound like a caress. 
 
 " What a day ! " she cried, and stretched 
 her strong young arms high above her 
 head as though to clasp and hold the 
 whole enchanting earth. Then turning 
 resolutely from the loveliness around, she 
 picked up the driver and began prepara- 
 tions. 
 
 "I know one puts the ball on a little
 
 1 6 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 mound as though it were a marble," she 
 murmured to herself. " That mound is one 
 of the few things in golf that really ap- 
 peals to me. It does so remind me of 
 Cincinnati." She finished an elaborate 
 elevation about two inches from the 
 ground and placed her ball. Grasping 
 the club with both hands like a vise, and 
 with every muscle rigid, she took a terrific 
 swing. When it was over she looked 
 down, and saw the ball still reposing 
 peacefully on the tee. 
 
 "Well!" she exclaimed, "what is it 
 there for ? It should have gone miles. 
 What on earth did I do to my back ? I 
 believe I've broken it." After a moment's 
 pause, she made another violent attempt, 
 and hit the ground six inches behind the 
 ball. There it stood, calm and serene, 
 while her wrist ached as though she had 
 dislocated it. With flushed cheeks and 
 flashing eyes she tried again. 
 
 " I'll hit it or die," she said aloud, 
 swinging passionately. The ball shot off 
 at right angles and disappeared in the 
 shining water.
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 17 
 
 While Patty stood spellbound looking 
 at the spot where it had so quickly van- 
 ished, she thought she heard the sound of 
 a badly suppressed laugh, but, after the 
 most careful scrutiny of the beach and 
 dunes, she concluded it was her heated 
 imagination. Preparing another elaborate 
 elevation, Miss Clark proceeded to try 
 again. This time her club cut cleanly 
 under, and the ball sat on the demolished 
 tee like Humpty Dumpty, looking as though 
 it had had a great fall. Then Patty sat 
 down on the sand and gazed at the driver 
 in absolute despair. 
 
 " I've gone through all the motions and 
 it's no use; it's absolutely no use," she 
 cried aloud. 
 
 " 'Tain't no use that way," said a voice 
 behind her. 
 
 Patty started, then, turning in astonish- 
 ment, confronted a tall, loose-jointed boy 
 of about fourteen, all but shoeless, and 
 practically bareheaded, as only a tattered 
 brim of what had once been a hat covered 
 his thick mat of tow-coloured sunburnt 
 hair. A pair of bright brown eyes blinked
 
 1 8 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 from under white eyelashes in a long, 
 solemn-looking face, tanned to a rich ma- 
 hogany. They surveyed each other in 
 silence for a moment, then Patty exclaimed, 
 indignantly : 
 
 " So you laughed ? " 
 
 "Guess so," replied the boy. 
 
 " Where were you ? " 
 
 " Yonder," with a jerk of his thumb 
 toward the dunes. 
 
 " Was it so very funny ? " dubiously, 
 after a slight pause. 
 
 " Bet yer life," replied the boy, a smile 
 of appreciation spreading over his face. 
 
 " Who are you, anyway ? " asked Patty, 
 with an attempt at haughtiness. 
 
 " Sammy." 
 
 " Sammy what ? " 
 
 " Sammy's 'nough," he answered, in- 
 differently. " Can't call yer more'n one at 
 a time." 
 
 "Well," said Patty, slowly picking up 
 her clubs, " I am glad to have given you 
 a half hour's amusement. I am also glad 
 that you can laugh. I feel as though I 
 could never laugh again."
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 19 
 
 "Want me to help yer?" volunteered 
 the boy, as he saw her about to leave. 
 
 " You ? " 
 
 Patty's tone conveyed volumes. 
 
 Sammy shambled up to her and took 
 the driver out of her hand without a word. 
 From one of his ragged pockets he pro- 
 duced an old battered ball, and proceeded to 
 tee it. Then he stepped back, and, without 
 further preliminaries, sent it flying down 
 the beach, long, low, and straight as a die. 
 Then he handed back the driver. Patty 
 looked at him with wide astonished eyes. 
 
 "Goin' now?" he asked, indifferently. 
 
 "Not until you show me how you did 
 it," she cried, eagerly. 
 
 "Guess I don't know 'nough," said 
 Sammy, still on his dignity. 
 
 " You are a wonder, a perfect wonder, 
 Sammy. Won't you help me ? How was 
 / to know how clever you were ? Do you 
 think I can ever learn ? " 
 
 " Dunno," said Sammy, doubtfully, " per- 
 haps yer can if I teach yer, only if I'm 
 agoin' ter, yer got to do as I tell yer, 
 'cause yer don't know nuthin'."
 
 20 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " I'll do everything you say, if you'll 
 only help me," said Patty, imploringly. 
 
 Sammy stood awkwardly digging his 
 toes into the sand. 
 
 "Well," he said, at last, "in der fust 
 place, yer don't want no Himmelayers." 
 
 " No what ? " 
 
 " No mountings," said Sammy, endeav- 
 ouring to be simple. " That thing yer 
 put yer ball on wasn't no tee, it was a 
 bunker, and yer had it sky high, too. 
 'Course yer club cut under it, and yer ball 
 stayed where 'twas. Yer make a little 
 feller like this un," stooping as he spoke, 
 " and then yer ready fer business. See ? " 
 
 " But, Sammy," said Miss Clark, almost 
 tearfully, "the first stroke I took went 
 clean over it. My tee might have been a 
 'mounting,' but I never touched it." 
 
 " Course yer didn't," said Sammy, scorn- 
 fully. 
 
 " But why ? There was force enough." 
 
 " Bet there was, it was a regular press 
 from way back. Yer want ter go easy at 
 fust, jest ter be sure and hit der ball. 
 Here yer go," he said, drawing a line from
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 21 
 
 the ball to where he stood. " Put yer left 
 foot just ahead of this and keep your 
 hands low, and when yer swing back, soft 
 and slow like, lift yer left foot from der 
 ground a little and then swat it, but, by 
 jiminy, keep yer eye on der ball, or yer a 
 goner." 
 
 Miss Clark started in to take a tremen- 
 dous backward swing, but Sammy stopped 
 her peremptorily. 
 
 " 'Tain't no use goin' at it like a steam- 
 engine, why don't yer mind what I tell 
 yer ? Keep yer body steady and yer 
 head down, and let her go." 
 
 Patty did as directed, although slightly 
 skeptical, and to her astonishment the ball 
 flew prettily away, not very far, to be sure, 
 but quite far enough to be inspiring after 
 her late efforts. 
 
 " Sammy, you darling, I shall always 
 love you dearly ! " she exclaimed, fervently. 
 "Oh, I am so happy." 
 
 "That wasn't much," said Sammy, with 
 engaging frankness. 
 
 Patty made another swing and topped 
 badly.
 
 22 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 "Took yer eye off," commented Sammy, 
 severely ; " saw yer lift yer head right up ; 
 that was 'cause yer was so glad 'bout der 
 odder one. Golfers ain't got no time ever 
 to be glad. Yer pulled yer body back, 
 too. Get furder away, an' keep yer head 
 steady, that's der jigger," he added, as a 
 beautiful ball sailed off down the beach. 
 
 " Sammy," said Patty, impressively, " I 
 believe, I don't know, but I believe that 
 I'm going to be able to play, and what is 
 more I believe I want to play. Dear angel 
 child, if you will meet me here every 
 morning at eight o'clock, I'll give you 
 untold gold." 
 
 The colour swept quickly into Sammy's 
 brown cheeks. 
 
 " Don't want no gold," he said, proudly. 
 
 Patty looked aghast. 
 
 " Then you won't come ? " she asked. 
 
 Sammy remained ominously silent. 
 
 " What do you want, Sammy, dear," 
 said Patty, coaxingly. "I'll give you any- 
 thing in the world. I'll tell you what 
 we'll do. When I go to town again, you 
 shall go with me, and I'll buy you what-
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 2$ 
 
 ever you would most like to have. Will 
 that do ? " 
 
 " Guess so," said Sammy, trying not to 
 look too happy. 
 
 " Take yer club and drive some more," 
 he said. "What yer want is ter foller 
 t' rough. Go right over on yer left foot 
 this way," and the club described a per- 
 fect sweep. Patty watched him admir- 
 ingly. All his angles and joints and elbows 
 seemed to disappear the moment he com- 
 menced to swing. "Yer can't only get 
 it by swingin' and swingin'. Yer don't 
 want no ball at fust, 'cause it frightens 
 yer." 
 
 After another hour of instruction, Patty 
 was ready to go home. The two started 
 down the beach together, and for the first 
 time that morning Miss Clark had time to 
 be curious. Sammy lounged along beside 
 her, apparently oblivious to everything and 
 everybody. 
 
 " Where do you come from, you queer 
 child ? " she asked, at last. ' 
 
 Ne' York." 
 
 " But how did you get here, and how
 
 24 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 do you happen to know so much about 
 golf?" 
 
 " Well, yer see ever since I was a little 
 shaver I've been caddyin' fer one of dem 
 big clubs near Ne' York, an' last winter 
 dere was a feller just crazy mad 'bout it, 
 an' he took me out one day in a blizzard, 
 an' dey all said he was clean gone off, an' 
 I got amonia, an' when he seed I couldn't 
 get well nohow, he says : ' Sammy, me boy, 
 I'll send yer down ter an ole lady fren' of 
 mine in der country. She's a dear ole 
 lady, an' she'll fix yer up like a king, an' 
 yer can caddy at der club down dere, 
 an' show dem fellers a t'ing or two.' 
 So I came down, an' de old lady's a 
 corker, yer bet yer." 
 
 " Is she very good to you, Sammy ? " 
 " Better den anybody ever was fofore." 
 " Do you get goodies, Sammy ? " 
 " My eye ! Don't I, though ? Chicking 
 all yer can eat, an' ice-cream, an' fat 
 bacon, an' an' every t'ing." 
 
 "What is your friend's name?" asked 
 Patty, with interest. 
 
 " His name is Mister Jack Sturgis,"
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 25 
 
 said Sammy, grandiloquently, "an* he 
 was down here yesterday. I caddied fer 
 him, and he went round in eighty-two. 
 He is a winner, he is." 
 
 Patty's face flushed crimson. 
 
 " Sammy," she said, hastily, " I want 
 you to promise me never to tell Mr. 
 Sturgis anything about me. You see I 
 know him very well, and I want to to 
 surprise him." 
 
 " I ain't goin' to tell nobody nuthin'," 
 said Sammy, deeply offended. " Guess 
 yer'd better promise not ter tell no one 
 yerself." 
 
 Nevertheless, they parted firm friends, 
 and every day that week saw them work- 
 ing together. Patty made marvellous 
 strides. Not daring to appear on the 
 links, she was not tempted to play round 
 "just to see what she could do." Sammy 
 kept her strictly in hand, and very rarely 
 condescended to praise. On Friday morn- 
 ing Patty appeared with all of Jack's kit. 
 Sammy recognised them at once. 
 
 "Yer got his clubs," he said, with a 
 little frown.
 
 26 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Yes," answered Patty, quickly. " He 
 he lent them to me, Sammy." 
 
 Sammy pondered. 
 
 " Must be kinder stuck on yer, then," 
 he said, at length, " 'cause he don't lend 
 his clubs to nobody." 
 
 "Well, I don't know," answered Patty, 
 weakly. 
 
 Miss Clark was beginning to develop a 
 very pretty form. She had a long, full 
 swing with plenty of snap as the club met 
 the ball, and a good follow through. They 
 took each club faithfully and impartially, 
 Sammy marking the respective distances, 
 and sternly requiring the technical name 
 of every stroke played. At last Patty 
 threw down the putter, and stretched her- 
 self out on the sand. Sammy began 
 fumbling in his pocket, finally producing 
 something resembling an old oil rag, then 
 he picked up Jack's caddy-bag, and seated 
 himself beside Miss Clark. 
 
 "What are you going to do, Sammy ? " 
 she inquired, lazily. 
 
 "Shine 'em." 
 
 " For whom ? "
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 2/ 
 
 " Fer him. Ain't he comin' down ? " 
 
 " I believe so," Patty answered, slowly. 
 "Will they be very bright, Sammy?" 
 
 " Bet yer," he answered, handling them 
 lovingly. 
 
 "Just think," she said, after a moment, 
 "I can't have another lesson this week, 
 and this is only Friday. Just one more 
 drive, just one, Sammy." 
 
 She jumped up hastily, and the boy 
 teed her ball. Placing her feet well apart, 
 with the fingers of her right hand showing 
 to the first knuckle, she took a slow back, 
 and brought the club down with magnifi- 
 cent force. The ball shot away, on and 
 on, into the dim distance, but with it went 
 the head of Jack's driver. 
 
 Patty stood horror-struck, with the 
 broken shaft in her hand, while Sammy 
 ran to pick up the head. 
 
 " It's a gorner," he said, looking at it 
 ruefully. 
 
 " Oh, Sammy, what shall we do, and he 
 comes this afternoon. Is it absolutely 
 hopeless ? " 
 
 " 'Tain't good for a cent," turning the
 
 28 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 broken head round and round in his 
 hand. 
 
 " Was it a very good one ? " 
 
 " 'Bout as good as dey make 'em. It 
 was a Burton." 
 
 Patty clapped her hands together and 
 shook Sammy violently. 
 
 " Why, do you know, Burton is at 
 Meadowville, and Meadowville is only a 
 short distance from here. I'll go over by 
 train and get him a new club, and if I am 
 too late for the train, I'll go over on my 
 wheel. Oh, Sammy, I think we are 
 saved." 
 
 " I'll go wid yer," said Sammy, enthu- 
 siastically, " yer can't get it alone 'cause 
 yer don't know nuthin' 'bout clubs. 
 We'll get yer some fer yerself, if yer've 
 got money 'nough," he added, doubtfully. 
 
 " Oh, I have cords of money," said 
 Patty, and, gathering up the scattered 
 clubs, she started up the beach on a 
 run. 
 
 Late that afternoon a dainty figure rose 
 from the depths of a piazza chair, and 
 greeted Jack with languid sweetness.
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 29 
 
 Patty wore a white organdy, all fluffs 
 and frills, a little train swept gracefully 
 behind her, and her bronze slippers had 
 the highest of high Louis Quinze heels. 
 The evening light caught the masses of 
 her hair, and heightened the colour in her 
 brown cheeks. Jack came forward eagerly, 
 then fell back into the usual careless 
 friendliness, as he saw the group of men 
 surrounding her. Just as he was about 
 to pass, something white she had been 
 holding dropped at his feet. He picked it 
 up and smiled as he handed it to her. 
 
 " Still embroidering ? " he asked, mock- 
 ingly. 
 
 After a moment's hesitation, Patty 
 followed him into the house. 
 
 " I want to see you for a moment, Jack. 
 Won't you wait a second before you go to 
 your room ? " 
 
 "What is it," he asked, leaning over the 
 banister. 
 
 " You know you left me your clubs to 
 take care of," she began, nervously, "and 
 some one, I've promised not to tell who, 
 broke your driver. It was a very mean
 
 3O DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and careless and unpardonable thing to 
 do, and it was wrong of me to lend them," 
 she went on, hurriedly, as he murmured 
 something under his breath, " but my 
 friend has given me another driver as 
 nearly like yours as possible. It is here 
 in your bag ; won't you look at it ? " 
 
 She could see that he was white with 
 anger, although he did not say one word. 
 His face flushed curiously as he looked at 
 the name on the club, and tested its 
 weight and balance. 
 
 Patty watched him with changing colour. 
 
 " It is a beautiful club," he said, at 
 length, as he put it quietly back, "much 
 better than my old one. It is a Burton 
 special, but I should have preferred not to 
 lose my own. You lent it ? " he asked, 
 looking at her. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " To whom ? " 
 
 "To a friend of mine," she answered, 
 defiantly. 
 
 He studied her face for a moment. 
 
 " You like this friend very much ? " he 
 asked, at length.
 
 "MAKE OR BREAK" 31 
 
 " Very much," she answered, steadily. 
 
 " I shall not forget," he said, " it is per- 
 haps just as well that I should know first 
 as last, only " he paused a moment 
 " when I meet that man, I'll tell him what 
 I think of him." The ending was sudden 
 and evidently changed. 
 
 " Don't let me detain you," he inter- 
 rupted, as he saw she was about to 
 speak. "I have kept you too long al- 
 ready." 
 
 That evening Jack spent in smoking 
 cigars and exchanging stories with Mr. 
 Clark in the little den off the dining-room. 
 Seeing that he would not be appeased, 
 Patty flirted desperately. Too proud to 
 make further overtures, and too obstinate 
 to confess she had broken the driver her- 
 self, the "rift within the lute" widened, 
 and Jack went away on Monday morning 
 sad at heart, though not wholly realizing 
 why he felt so like the famous wooden 
 spoon with its lump of lead. The follow- 
 ing week Miss Clark, with a sigh of relief, 
 tore open a letter addressed in Jack's big 
 sprawling hand.
 
 32 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Dear Patty," she read, " I want to 
 thank you for my very charming stay with 
 you, and for the many delightful times you 
 have given me this summer. You know I 
 am not much at ' bread and butter ' letters, 
 but as I start for Colorado in a few days 
 on a hunting trip with Bill Sanderson, I 
 thought your dear mother might wonder 
 why I did not appear like the proverbial 
 bad penny. 
 
 " I wish you a very pleasant summer, 
 and trust I may see you in the fall. I am, 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 "JOHN STURGIS." 
 
 Patty tore the letter into bits, and 
 watched them as they fluttered away. 
 
 " So be it," she said, at last, although 
 her eyes were suspiciously bright, "but 
 was the old driver worth it, I wonder ? "
 
 SAMMY
 
 II 
 
 SAMMY 
 
 " TT'S time fer yer ter begin," said 
 J- Sammy, dictatorially, as he put up 
 Miss Clark's clubs one morning after four 
 weeks' solid practice. 
 
 " Begin, but I have begun." 
 
 " No, yer ain't," he contradicted, " yer 
 can only play strokes. Wait till yer get 
 on der links wid a lot of odder fellers, an' 
 yer'll see der difference." 
 
 " Do you mean do you think that I 
 am really fit to go out and play ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Well, yer see, I've taught yer 'bout all 
 I can dis way," said Sammy, reflectively, 
 " an' yer won't never get no furder if yer 
 don't play ball. Tell yer what," he said, 
 with a touch of excitement, " der's a weekly 
 handicap at der Club ter-morrer afternoon. 
 35
 
 36 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 Lemme enter yer, an' I'll caddy fer yer an' 
 tell yer what's what. We'll get yer der 
 limit handicap an' den watch der fedders 
 fly." Sammy gave a whoop and turned a 
 somersault to relieve his feelings. 
 
 " I wonder if I can do it," said Patty, 
 nervously, yet with longing written in 
 every line of her face. 
 
 "Yer must" said Sammy, "or else I 
 won't teach yer no more. No, sir, yer got 
 ter be a dead game sport, an' I'll stand by 
 yer every time." 
 
 The following afternoon there was a 
 sensation on the Club piazza when Patty 
 appeared carrying her caddy-bag. 
 
 " A charming recruit," said dapper little 
 Mr. Peterson, the chairman of the golf 
 committee. " We have given you the 
 ah limit, 27 as we understand you are 
 quite a novice. Hope you won't mind 
 either way, Miss Clark, too much or ah 
 too little, don't yer know." 
 
 The women all crowded around Miss 
 Clark to encourage her, some very patron- 
 isingly. 
 
 " So glad you've joined us at last,
 
 SAMMY 37 
 
 Patty," said young Mrs. Gerard, who 
 thought herself a "crack." "You were 
 altogether out of it, you know, and I 
 felt so sorry." 
 
 "Patty always seems so much out of 
 everything," remarked Miss Duane, ironi- 
 cally. 
 
 " Oh, in a ballroom Patty is un- 
 equalled," said Mrs. Gerard, condescend- 
 ingly, " nevertheless I am glad to see her 
 read the signs of the times, and cultivate 
 her muscle." 
 
 " Isn't it jolly that you and I are paired 
 together," said Miss Duane, linking her 
 arm in Patty's. " I'm so fond of you that 
 I'll forgive even bad play. It's our turn 
 to start in a few minutes. Have you a 
 caddy?" 
 
 "Yes, thanks," said Patty, flushing 
 slightly. Then they walked toward the 
 first tee. 
 
 Sammy came up to her and took her 
 clubs with stolid indifference. 
 
 " Keep your eye on der ball, and don't 
 get scared," he said, in a low tone, as he 
 walked away.
 
 38 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Which hand will you have ? " asked 
 Miss Duane. 
 
 " What's that for ? " demanded Patty in 
 surprise. 
 
 " For the honour, goosie. You are a 
 little duffer. Come, which hand ?" 
 
 " The right," said Patty, breathlessly. 
 
 " Left wins," answered Miss Duane, pro- 
 ducing the ball. She made a beautiful 
 drive and cleared the bunker. 
 
 Patty knelt down and teed her ball. 
 
 " Where is the hole ? " she asked, look- 
 ing down the course in a blind sort of 
 way. 
 
 " Play in a direct line for that far post 
 to the left ; keep well up or you'll catch 
 the roll of the hill." 
 
 Patty took her stance with an air of 
 desperation. Her heart was beating like 
 a sledge-hammer, and the ball seemed to 
 whirl around madly. She forgot all her 
 instructions, all her good resolutions, and 
 clutching the club made a desperate, im- 
 possible lunge. The result was a bad top, 
 and the ball trickled off about ten yards. 
 The women standing around smiled at
 
 SAMMY 39 
 
 each other, and dismissed her from their 
 list of possibilities. 
 
 "Poor little Patty," said Mrs. Gerard, 
 gently. "I am really very fond of her, 
 but it will be a trial to play behind her, 
 won't it ? " 
 
 Sammy came up to his protegee and 
 handed her a brassey. His face wore an 
 expression of ineffable disgust. 
 
 "T'ought yer was a sport," he said, 
 bitingly, "but yer only like all odder 
 girls, so scared yer can't see nuthin'. 
 Take yer brassey and put her over der 
 bunker; yer can do it if yer want ter." 
 
 But Patty was fast in the clutches of 
 "stage fright," and topping again she 
 went in instead of over. It cost her 
 three to get out, and when she finally 
 counted up her score she had a round 
 ten for the first hole. At the second tee, 
 Miss Duane made another long drive, and 
 Patty, getting more and more nervous, 
 "foozled" badly. 
 
 Sammy lounged up to her and saun- 
 tered along by her side. 
 
 "Yer jest scared blue," he remarked,
 
 4O DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 resentfully, " an' 'tain't like yer. When 
 yer playin' in a tourneyment yer want 
 ter play each stroke fer hisself ; yer don't 
 want ter t'ink 'bout how yer doin'. 'Tain't 
 no use ter pay 'tention ter yer partner 
 when yer playin' fer score, 'cause yer ain't 
 tryin' to beat one pusson, but der field. 
 All yer want ter do is ter keep cool an' 
 hit easy. Take yer brassey agen," he 
 said, as they reached the ball. " Now fer 
 it." 
 
 But Patty topped hopelessly and turned 
 to Sammy with tears in her eyes. " You'd 
 better give me up, Sammy. This is 
 agony" 
 
 "No, 'tain't; it's rattles," said Sammy, 
 positively. "Tell yer what, if yer mind 
 can do any t'inkin' 'tall when yer come ter 
 yer next brassey remember not ter look 
 at der top of der ball, but at der under 
 side of it, an' at der ground." He might 
 as well have talked to the wind. Patty 
 made " flub-dub " after " flub-dub," and did 
 a seven to Miss Duane's four. As they 
 walked to the third tee, Mrs. Gerard, who 
 had hurriedly holed out, called to them.
 
 SAMMY 41 
 
 " Do you mind if we pass you ? " she 
 said, walking up and teeing her ball, with- 
 out waiting for a reply. "I have quite 
 a good score so far, and waiting always 
 breaks me up. Patty doesn't count, any 
 way, and Miss Duane is so steady that 
 nothing ever phases her, so of course it's 
 all right." 
 
 Her tone was so absolutely self-satisfied 
 that Miss Duane, amazed though she was, 
 had to smile. Patty's eyes flashed, then 
 suddenly, without rhyme or reason, she 
 felt all nervousness leave her. With a 
 glance at Sammy she stepped forward 
 and placed her ball. The carry was about 
 eighty-five yards .over a marshy pond with 
 some ugly-looking broken fence rails in 
 the foreground. It was only about one 
 hundred and twenty-five yards to the 
 green, but the moral effect of this hazard 
 was usually so strong that even the cracks 
 dreaded it. Patty, however, in blissful 
 ignorance of its terrors and reputation, 
 took her stance and direction and put her 
 ball on the green. 
 
 " My dear ! " exclaimed Miss Duane,
 
 42 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 looking at her in astonishment. "That 
 was a beautiful ball," she added, " but you 
 drove right on top of Mrs. Gerard when 
 she was putting. She is perfectly furious. 
 I can tell by her motions, and she thinks 
 I did it. What a joke. It was my honour 
 also," turning to Patty. " I suppose you 
 had no idea it would go so far." 
 
 " The drive was intentional," said Patty, 
 with a queer little smile, "but the other 
 things I did were mistakes. I had no idea 
 one had to wait so long for people." 
 
 "Until after the second shot, or on a 
 short hole like this until those ahead of 
 you have putted out," explained Miss 
 Duane. 
 
 Sammy's eyes gleamed under his white 
 eyelashes, as he handed Patty her club. 
 
 " Go it," he said, " go it, an' do 'em up, 
 yer all right now, an' I'm backin' yer fer 
 keeps." 
 
 From that time on Patty played better 
 than she knew. Her drives were long and 
 straight, and her brasseys steady. She lost 
 badly on her approaches, and on the green 
 made Sammy groan, but for such a nov-
 
 SAMMY 43 
 
 ice her performance was remarkable, and 
 Sammy spent some of his spare mo- 
 ments between tees turning somersaults ; 
 the rest of the time he devoted to coach- 
 ing. 
 
 "Yer short approach is a little wrist 
 one, I tell yer. Can't yer remember what 
 I say ? Not a full swing, ner even half a 
 one, an' when yer put long puts, yer foller 
 t'rough jest like yer do wid everyt'ing else. 
 Yer can't make der ball go straight if yer 
 don't." 
 
 Miss Duane watched Patty's game with 
 growing astonishment. Good-natured as 
 she was, she could not help feeling a little 
 out and injured. 
 
 " You can't tell me you've never had a 
 club in your hand before," she remarked, 
 as they approached the seventh tee. " Your 
 form is too good, and you go about it as 
 though you knew what you were doing. 
 You might as well own up, Patty Clark, 
 and tell us how you did it." 
 
 "I didn't say I'd never held a club," 
 replied Patty, evasively, "but I did say 
 I had never been on any links before. It
 
 44 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 is gospel truth, as my awful blunders must 
 prove." 
 
 Mrs. Gerard had been spending quite a 
 little of her time looking back. She was 
 evidently not coming in very well, for the 
 pair behind her saw divots fly, and signs 
 of temper at long range. 
 
 "Mrs. Gerard has it in for some one," 
 remarked Miss Duane, cheerfully, "you 
 know it is never Mrs. Gerard who plays 
 badly, but always some outside thing that 
 happens." 
 
 " Is it accidental, too, when she does 
 well ? " asked Patty, with a laugh. 
 
 " No, it is the reward of virtue," replied 
 her friend. 
 
 Although Miss Duane was beginning to 
 realise that sometime Patty might prove 
 dangerous, no one was prepared for the 
 result when the scores were posted, and 
 Patty's name, with her limit handicap, 
 headed the list. After a dead silence, in 
 which every one seemed trying to grasp 
 the situation, a perfect Babel of voices 
 rent the air, while Patty stood in the 
 centre of the excited group, doubt, chagrin,
 
 SAMMY 45 
 
 pleasure, and amusement crossing her face 
 in rapid succession. 
 
 "I wouldn't have thought it of you, 
 Patty Clark," said Mrs. Gerard, as soon 
 as she could make herself heard. " I 
 didn't think you had a mean bone in your 
 body, but you have taken us all into camp, 
 and by a trick, too. It's a shame," she 
 continued, turning to Miss Duane, "that 
 silver candlestick was just what I needed 
 for my dressing-table." 
 
 Miss Duane looked up at the scores. 
 
 " I don't see what you have against poor 
 Patty, for you are fifth and I am second." 
 
 " I have everything against her," cried 
 Mrs. Gerard, "she kept playing on top of 
 me all around the course. If she did it 
 once she did it a dozen times, and I was 
 so astonished and bothered by her game 
 that I couldn't play a little bit. I never 
 did like her, anyway," she said, as she 
 walked away. 
 
 " You never said a truer thing," thought 
 Miss Duane, looking after her, reflectively. 
 
 " Dear me, how you did jolly us, Miss 
 Clark ! " said little Mr. Peterson, nervously
 
 46 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 rubbing his hands together. " If such a 
 thing were to happen again, I should cer- 
 tainly have to leave town." 
 
 " It wasn't intentional," said Patty. " Do 
 you know," she added, as she turned to 
 Miss Duane, " I feel as though I had stolen 
 something." 
 
 Half an hour later Patty started home 
 with her candlestick under her arm, and 
 a devoted admirer on either side. Hearing 
 sounds of a great commotion near the 
 caddy-house, they all went over to inquire 
 the cause. Turning the corner, they saw 
 a dancing ring of excited and whooping 
 caddies, with Sammy in the centre, be- 
 labouring one poor unfortunate with all 
 his might. Stretched out on the grass 
 were the previous victims of Sammy's 
 prowess in various stages of collapse, while 
 Sammy himself, though still vigorous, 
 looked decidedly the worse for wear. 
 
 " Yer will, will yer," he panted, between 
 each blow. " Guess yer won't next time. 
 I'll teach yer ter call names, yer ugly 
 bruiser. Come on if yer ain't had 'nough. 
 I'm ready ! "
 
 SAMMY 47 
 
 Young Osborne rushed in and literally 
 tore Sammy away. 
 
 " What's got into you, you young raga- 
 muffin," he cried, as he caught him by the 
 collar and shook him as though he'd been 
 a terrier. 
 
 " You lemme 'lone," said Sammy, kick- 
 ing vigorously. 
 
 Patty went up to him and managed to 
 catch his arm. 
 
 " Sammy," she said, in a horrified voice, 
 " what does this mean ? " 
 
 Sammy stopped struggling, and looked 
 up at her out of two black and rapidly 
 closing eyes. 
 
 " Dey called yer a sleeper, der dirty 
 good-fer-nothin's, an' I licked 'em every 
 one, an' I'll lick any odder feller dat likes 
 ter try me, I will ! " and Sammy squirmed 
 like an eel under Osborne's restraining 
 hand. 
 
 " A sleeper," said Patty, " what's that ? " 
 
 " Never mind," interrupted her compan- 
 ion, releasing Sammy, and giving him a 
 resounding clap on the shoulder. " You're 
 a game little beggar, and here's to you,"
 
 48 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and a big shining " cartwheel " found its 
 way into Sammy's astonished hand. 
 
 Patty looked at the stooping, ragged 
 figure, and the bruised, defiant face, then 
 she slipped one arm across his shoulders. 
 
 " I don't know what a sleeper is, 
 Sammy," she said, gently, "but I do know 
 that you fought for me, and I love you 
 for it. Come with me now, and get your 
 poor eyes attended to." 
 
 And amid the admiring and respectful 
 silence of his vanquished enemies Sammy 
 was led away in triumph. 
 
 The next morning but one Patty was 
 handed a telegram just as she was starting 
 for the beach. 
 
 " Have found the person who broke my 
 driver. Am coming down to tell him 
 what I think of him. JOHN."
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL
 
 Ill 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 
 
 HAMILTON, Richards, and I had 
 lately become members of the New 
 River Club, and were experiencing the 
 settled respectable feeling that invariably 
 envelops those who have just paid their 
 dues and their pew rent. We had arranged 
 to take a lesson together, knowing that we 
 were all duffers, and believing that we could 
 better face the phenomenal knowledge and 
 skill of Todd, our Great Professional, in 
 company. Each felt that to attack him 
 singly would be little less than madness. 
 
 We had a few clubs, bought the pre- 
 vious year, with such small discrimination 
 as we possessed, having in view the rough 
 and rocky field near our summer cottage 
 where we had laid out five holes, and where 
 we had spent many an absorbed hour. 
 5*
 
 52 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 Golf, or the game faintly resembling it 
 which we dignified by that name, was an 
 entirely novel sight to the unenlightened 
 natives. Consequently our flags (made of 
 " turkey-red " and nailed to a bit of kin- 
 dling wood) became trophies of inestimable 
 value to the village children. As a result, 
 we never could find the hole which we had 
 cut the day previous, and when our scores 
 had grown beyond what we considered 
 decent, we usually cut another hole, and 
 played out. 
 
 With all this weighing on our memories, 
 and having become a little enlightened as 
 to what golf really should be, we appeared 
 at the caddy-house, looking, as I am sure 
 we all felt, very small, and somewhat 
 foolish. 
 
 The Great Professional greeted us with 
 unexpected cordiality. He treated us very 
 much as a famous medical specialist might 
 have done. He was full of mystery, and 
 yet he gave us subtly to understand that, 
 if we put our confidence in him, we also 
 might become great, of course in a limited 
 degree. After holding two or three im-
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 53 
 
 portant conferences with the workmen 
 while we waited, the Great Professional 
 was ready to attend to us. 
 
 " Four caddies," he called to the cap- 
 tain, then glanced at the clubs which we 
 carried in our hands. " It will be neces- 
 sary for you to have caddy-bags, gentle- 
 men," he said, politely, but firmly. " Shall 
 I give you each one of these ? " 
 
 We hastily assented, feeling how unpar- 
 donable it was to have appeared without 
 them. Then we became the proud posses- 
 sors of new pig-skin bags bristling with 
 pockets, and shining with dazzling new- 
 ness. The Great Professional then took 
 down four boxes of new balls, and calling 
 an extra caddy sent him out to join the 
 others. Then he began to examine our 
 clubs. A slow smile of pitying contempt 
 spread over his face as he looked at them. 
 
 " Dear, dear," he murmured, "these are 
 a very mongrel lot, a very mongrel lot. 
 They look as though they had been made 
 by a carpenter. Where did you get 
 them ? " 
 
 We diffidently explained that we chose
 
 54 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 them ourselves, more with a view to 
 economy than anything else, and had had 
 no professional advice whatsoever. 
 
 " It will be quite impossible for me to 
 give you any satisfactory instruction with 
 these," he said, with a pained expression. 
 " Now here," and he picked up a driver, 
 " is a club that I can really recommend. 
 You see it is superbly balanced. I will 
 put two of these in each of your caddy- 
 bags and let you keep the one that suits 
 you best. Hitting a ball or two will not 
 injure them, and you will be much better 
 satisfied in the end." 
 
 We felt that we were being royally 
 treated, let in on the inside track in 
 fact, so after he had selected a great 
 many clubs, almost a duplicate set for each 
 of us, we started out for the practice tee. 
 We made quite a little calvacade, our five 
 caddies, our Great Professional, and our 
 three selves. We could not help think- 
 ing how imposing we must appear to the 
 golfers coming down the home green. 
 
 We were about to produce a few old 
 balls, when the Great Professional took
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 55 
 
 two boxes of new ones from the caddy 
 and threw them carelessly at our feet. 
 
 " It is always necessary to play with 
 new balls," he announced, " old balls are 
 very bad for the eye. It is impossible to 
 get the proper focus. Golf is a game that 
 requires the most perfect and delicate 
 adjustment of everything, clubs, balls, 
 caddies, must all be just so." 
 
 The practice tee was off to the right of 
 the course. A long, narrow strip of land 
 had been cleared, leaving high grass wav- 
 ing in tawny picturesqueness on either 
 side. One caddy he sent about a hun- 
 dred yards away; the others, with our 
 bags, grouped themselves around us, and 
 looked on in stolid indifference. 
 
 We had decided that Hamilton should 
 start first, he having, in our judgment, the 
 freest style. We were in a frame of 
 mind to magnify his remembered excellen- 
 cies, and then, if he did something foolish, 
 as we felt sure he would do, and as the 
 Great Professional felt sure he would do, 
 it would be less trying to be foolish after 
 him.
 
 56 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 Todd unbent himself sufficiently to 
 make Hamilton's tee ; on it he placed a 
 beautiful new ball, white, smooth, tempt- 
 ing. 
 
 " Take this club," he said, picking a 
 driver out of his own bag. " It has a very 
 short handle and is well laid back, two 
 great essentials for a beginner. After 
 your style has developed, you will be 
 ready for a straighter face and a longer 
 shaft. Just take a trial swing without the 
 ball, and let me see your form." 
 
 Hamilton placed himself in position, and, 
 like all beginners, swung himself almost 
 off his feet. 
 
 " Ah ! " said Todd, " you have a good 
 natural style, but everything to learn. I 
 should advise a course of lessons every 
 day for some little time before attempting 
 to go on the course. In that way I can 
 cure your present bad habits, and prevent 
 your getting into worse. Just swing once 
 again, will you ? " 
 
 We all felt that the Great Professional 
 was taking an unusual interest in Hamil- 
 ton. We thought even better of our good
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL $? 
 
 judgment in putting him forward, since it 
 was confirmed by so eminent a golfer. 
 
 " Now try a drive," said Todd. 
 
 Hamilton, swinging with great force, 
 took his eye off, drew back his body, and 
 foundered the ball. 
 
 "Those things will happen," said Todd, 
 with patronising generosity; "try again." 
 
 This time the ball went about eighty 
 yards, but sliced badly into the long 
 grass. One of the caddies started in a 
 leisurely manner in the direction of its 
 fall. 
 
 " I would suggest that for the present 
 you keep your feet on the ground," said 
 Todd. "Get well over on the left foot, 
 bend your left knee a little, and keep your 
 body steady. You are not yet ready for 
 too much body motion. Later on you 
 can work in the right shoulder." 
 
 Richards and I looked at each other in 
 astonishment. We had never seen any 
 form quite like the one Todd suggested, 
 but still he must know. We got a little 
 away from Todd and Hamilton, and tried 
 it ourselves. It felt very queer and stiff ;
 
 58 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 but still we were duffers, and we had not 
 come out there to criticise, but to learn. 
 
 Hamilton drove about twenty balls, and 
 really progressed somewhat, although he 
 sliced and pulled badly. The caddies 
 brought back sixteen, and said they could 
 not find the others. Hamilton made no 
 comment, but looked somewhat ruefully 
 at his mutilated Silvertowns. 
 
 It now being Richards's turn, the Great 
 Professional threw out a dozen more new 
 balls. Richards was short and extremely 
 nervous, with a choppy little swing and a 
 queer kind of push for a follow through. 
 He gave one the impression of being 
 afraid to let himself go. To his intense 
 misery, Todd changed all this, and made 
 him swing freely over his head, while 
 the balls flew wildly to the right or to 
 the left, but never by any chance in the 
 proper direction. Richards grew whiter 
 and whiter. 
 
 " It's no use," he said, at last, throwing 
 down his clubs in disgust. " I can't tie 
 myself into a bow-knot and expect to hit 
 anything."
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 59 
 
 "You must not become discouraged," 
 said the Great Professional, reassuringly. 
 "I am changing your form for your ulti- 
 mate good. If you were to continue to 
 play in your present style you would never 
 get one step further forward. If you will 
 take a number of lessons, as I have just 
 suggested to Mr. Hamilton, one right after 
 the other, you will soon develop a good 
 game." 
 
 Meanwhile the caddies had brought back 
 Richards's balls, with five missing. It be- 
 ing now my turn, Todd started to shake 
 out another dozen. In the meantime I 
 had been doing a little thinking. 
 
 " Pardon me, Mr. Todd," I said, being 
 still somewhat overawed, and a little un- 
 certain how to address him, " I won't 
 need the new dozen at present. I have 
 some old balls here which I think may do, 
 as we seem to lose so many." 
 
 " Oh, very well," said Todd, his ferret- 
 like face hardening into an expression of 
 dislike. " Try this new club, Mr. Wyllys. 
 You will find it exactly suited to you, I 
 think."
 
 6O DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 "No, thank you," I replied. "I am 
 used to my own old driver, such as it is, 
 and would rather play with it, if it's just 
 the same to you." 
 
 " Oh, without doubt," he answered, and 
 picking up one of my old balls as though 
 it were a toad, he teed it for me in silence. 
 He made a few perfunctory remarks about 
 my feet and swing, with his eyes wander- 
 ing restlessly to the caddy-house. Sud- 
 denly he excused himself, saying he saw 
 a gentleman with whom he had an ap- 
 pointment. Taking out my watch, I 
 looked at the time, and then proceeded 
 to drive my old balls to my own edifi- 
 cation, at least. Hamilton was going 
 over his clubs with the joy of a child 
 with a new toy, while Richards sat on 
 the grass, and seemed to be meditat- 
 ing. 
 
 Todd came back in about twenty min- 
 utes, and apologised for keeping me wait- 
 ing. After five minutes or so of careless 
 instruction, he said our time was up. I 
 stopped swinging in surprise. 
 
 " Why, you were away twenty minutes,
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 6 1 
 
 and I have had practically no lesson," I 
 said, looking him in the eye. 
 
 He shifted uneasily, and said he was 
 sorry, very sorry, but his absence had 
 been unavoidable. A gentleman was wait- 
 ing for him at that very moment. 
 
 "Then let him wait," I replied, thor- 
 oughly angry ; " you stay here, and give 
 me the amount of time which is my due, 
 and which I do not doubt you will charge 
 for. Then you may make whatever apolo- 
 gies you like to the other man." 
 
 Hamilton looked at me in undisguised 
 wonder, while Todd's face grew black. 
 He stayed the twenty minutes, however, 
 and I managed to get some instruction out 
 of him, although it was like examining a 
 refractory witness in a political investiga- 
 tion. When my time was finally over, we 
 all walked back together. 
 
 " I think I won't have that new set of 
 clubs, or that pig-skin caddy-bag," I said 
 to Todd. " I am afraid they are just a 
 little beyond me." 
 
 Todd said nothing, but bowed with all 
 the inimitable insolence of an Englishman
 
 62 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 of his class. He made several appoint- 
 ments with Richards and Hamilton, and 
 saying he had not had time to have the 
 checks made out, but would send them 
 a bill, he left us. 
 
 Hamilton turned to me with an annoyed 
 expression. 
 
 " What was the matter with you, 
 Wyllys ? " he said. " You had a regular 
 grouch. The trouble with you is you're 
 too careful, and too suspicious. You think 
 all the world has a combination against 
 you. Those old clubs of yours are of no 
 earthly use, while these of mine are beau- 
 ties, and selected especially for me, with 
 Todd's best judgment. Golf is an expen- 
 sive game, every one admits that, and it 
 is especially so at the start. After you 
 get your things together you'll be all 
 right." 
 
 " I'm glad you're satisfied," I replied ; 
 "so far as I'm concerned, I'm satisfied 
 also. I dare say I'm a crank, and all that, 
 but I prefer to buy my clubs in my own 
 way, as I go along. Then I know better 
 what I want."
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 63 
 
 " You're foolish to lose Todd's advice," 
 Hamilton insisted, earnestly. 
 
 We met Rollins, as we were going into 
 the dressing-room. 
 
 "Whew!" he whistled, as he looked 
 at Hamilton's bristling bag, "you have 
 gone into it. Two one-piece drivers I've 
 never been able to afford one." 
 
 As Rollins was a millionaire, we looked 
 at each other, and smiled. 
 
 "One must have two always," said 
 Hamilton, looking wise. " If one should 
 get broken, why, then you have the other 
 on the spot." 
 
 " Humph ! " said Rollins, " what were 
 you doing to-day?" examining the con- 
 tents of Hamilton's pockets. 
 
 " Taking a lesson." 
 
 "With new balls!" he exclaimed, with 
 an incredulous smile. 
 
 "Look here," said Richards, suddenly, 
 " just keep still, will you, Rollins ? I see 
 now that we've made precious fools of our- 
 selves, and allowed a man to flatter and 
 bamboozle us into getting about twice as 
 much as we need, at undoubtedly about
 
 64 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 three times the price we can afford, but 
 that's no reason why you should stand 
 there rubbing it in. Wyllys had a long 
 head, and got out in time. I know now 
 I've been an idiot, but Hamilton there 
 doesn't see that he's been fooled yet. 
 He's the kind of a man that never learns 
 anything until he pays for it." 
 
 Three weeks later Hamilton walked up 
 to me with a bill in his hand. He was so 
 angry that he quite forgot I might not be 
 altogether sympathetic. He gave me the 
 paper without a word, and this is what 
 I read : 
 
 Two special drivers ... $ 8.00 
 
 One brassey 2.50 
 
 One cleek 2.00 
 
 One lofter 2.00 
 
 One mashie 2.00 
 
 One mid-iron 2.00 
 
 One gun-metal putter . . 1.50 
 
 Three dozen balls . . . 10.25 
 
 Five lessons 5.00 
 
 $35-25 
 
 I looked at him as I returned it, and 
 tried not to smile. A gleam of dawning
 
 THE GREAT PROFESSIONAL 65 
 
 recollection came into his face as he saw 
 my expression. 
 
 " A man may fool me once, but he won't 
 do it twice," he said, with some embarrass- 
 ment, putting the bill in his pocket. 
 
 " I'm glad you have that consolation," 
 I could not refrain from saying, as I 
 sauntered away.
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR
 
 IV 
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 
 
 THE Reverend Hugh Pierson sauntered 
 up and down the crowded waiting- 
 room and amused himself studying human 
 nature. It was rather remarkable that he 
 should have had sufficient energy to do so 
 when "off duty," considering how much 
 he came in contact with it, good and bad, 
 in his daily ministrations. Being still 
 young, he had not yet reached that inter- 
 mediary stage when personal disappoint- 
 ments could make him bitter, or personal 
 joys indifferent. He believed in himself, 
 in his profession, and in the desirableness 
 of thoroughly understanding the world and 
 the dwellers therein. At the present mo- 
 ment he was looking forward with the 
 keenest interest to his game of golf. Al- 
 though very early in the season, the breath 
 69
 
 7O DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 of spring was in the air, and, notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that it was still Lent, he had 
 been unable to resist the thought of a 
 long free afternoon in the country, sug- 
 gested by one of his favourite parishioners. 
 He kept looking at the clock impatiently, 
 and wondering if the two men who were 
 to complete the foursome would appear 
 with his host. He had no very definite 
 idea of plans ; he had been told to come, 
 and he came, with the unquestioning joy 
 of a schoolboy out on an unexpected holi- 
 day. Getting still more impatient, he 
 walked to the door and looked up and 
 down the street for a sign of his friend. 
 As he stood there, two very pretty young 
 women passed him, both dressed in the 
 smartest golfing fashion. They glanced 
 at him and passed on. 
 
 " Thank Heaven, they are not to be my 
 fate," he murmured to himself ; then, sud- 
 denly catching sight of Tom Arnold, he 
 waved his cap delightedly. 
 
 " Here you are at last," he said, heartily. 
 " I was half afraid you would miss your 
 train. Where are the others ? "
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR /I 
 
 " The girls are probably waiting inside. 
 I left them only a moment ago." 
 
 " Girls ! " exclaimed the Reverend Hugh, 
 stopping short. 
 
 " Yes, girls," repeated Arnold, stopping 
 also, and looking at him in astonishment. 
 " Anything wrong about that ?" 
 
 " No, of course not," quickly recover- 
 ing himself, " only I didn't understand 
 it was to be a tea-party. I thought it was 
 to be the real thing." 
 
 "You need not worry yourself about 
 that, my dear fellow. These girls will 
 give you as much of the real thing as you 
 can stand, perhaps a little more. I was 
 anxious to have you meet my wife," added 
 Tom, with a touch of pride. 
 
 "Delighted," said the Reverend Hugh, 
 hastily. Then, with his charming smile, 
 " I understand she is altogether lovely ; 
 almost good enough for you, according to 
 Jackie." 
 
 " By the way, where is Jackie ? " asked 
 Arnold, quickly. 
 
 " Gone West to join the Rough Riders." 
 A shadow of pain crossed Tom's face.
 
 72 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Is it so ? " he remarked, thoughtfully. 
 
 Meanwhile the girls had been studying 
 the Reverend Hugh attentively. " He is 
 very good looking, but too fair for a man," 
 said Mrs. Arnold, reflectively. 
 
 " Naturally, since Tom is dark," replied 
 Lucy Middleton, with a little laugh. " He 
 doesn't look one bit angelic without his 
 robes," she added. " I wonder what are 
 his real proportions of good and bad, any- 
 way. It would be interesting to find out." 
 
 " Don't, Lou," said Helen, a little sadly. 
 " let this one man escape. If you have 
 no pity for him for his own sake, at least 
 respect his cloth." 
 
 " You are very flattering," replied Lou, 
 " but it is quite possible that he may escape 
 without any self-sacrifice on my part. 
 They don't all fall in love with me, you 
 know." 
 
 " Nearly all," said Helen. 
 
 "Well, Tom didn't, anyway." 
 
 " Oh, Tom ! " replied Helen, in an inde- 
 scribable tone. 
 
 " I can't say that I ever tried to make 
 him," continued Lucy, reflectively, "but
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR ?$ 
 
 even if I had, I don't believe I should have 
 succeeded. He sees through and through 
 me. At least, so he thinks. I am quite 
 sure he has told you that I am empty as 
 air, ' sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.' 
 Now hasn't he ? " Mrs. Arnold coloured. 
 
 " Not that I care," said Lucy, airily. 
 " He is only one misguided man among so 
 many appreciative dears ; besides, he fell 
 in love with you, and that would redeem 
 him in my eyes, even if he said I wasn't 
 pretty. Here they come," she exclaimed. 
 " He has rather nice eyes," studying Hugh. 
 "Do you know, I really believe we are 
 going to enjoy ourselves." 
 
 " How are we going to play ? " asked 
 Helen, as they seated themselves in the 
 train. 
 
 "What a needless question," answered 
 Lucy. "Just as though it would be pos- 
 sible to keep you and Tom apart. It would 
 end in your having two partners and I 
 none. Mr. Pierson and I will play you 
 even, turning to Tom, "and beat you, 
 too ; the advantage is on our side because 
 we are not in love with each other."
 
 74 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " No one knows what the day may bring 
 forth," replied Hugh, gravely. 
 
 "That sounds Biblical," said Miss Mid- 
 dleton, with a startled air. " Isn't it ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid it is," he answered, with a 
 little flush, " but I promise never to do it 
 again." 
 
 " Do you know that you are my spiritual 
 pastor and master, and that I am one of 
 your sheep ? " she said, after a little pause, 
 looking up at him with her glorious dark 
 eyes. 
 
 " Indeed ! " he exclaimed. " Why, yes, 
 I believe you are, at least to the extent 
 of my making a perfunctory call at your 
 house once a year. I can't say that I've 
 ever found you at home, nor do I see you 
 very often in church, either." 
 
 " Can you see people in church ? " she 
 asked, interestedly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, after awhile, when one gets 
 used to it." 
 
 " Where do I sit ? " 
 
 " Somewhere in the back of the church 
 in the middle aisle," he answered, indif- 
 ferently.
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 75 
 
 "Yes, that is right," she said, with 
 approval. Then she asked, suddenly : 
 
 " Do you dislike personalities ? " 
 
 " It depends," he answered. 
 
 " Well, nice personalities." 
 
 " Like what, for example ? " 
 
 " I was going to say that you have 
 improved so much in your reading." 
 
 " Have I ? " he exclaimed, with an in- 
 describable mixture of amusement and 
 offended vanity. 
 
 " I know that to say you have improved 
 implies that there was room for improve- 
 ment," she said, slowly, " but you never 
 used to do yourself justice. A successful 
 personality must be positive, not negative. 
 No one meeting you socially would ever 
 accuse you of being negative," she fin- 
 ished, with a smile. 
 
 " You seem to arrive quickly at conclu- 
 sions," he commented, looking down at her 
 rather mockingly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, and I'm always right," she 
 said, positively. 
 
 " I congratulate you. Perhaps you will 
 show me how to do it some day."
 
 76 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Perhaps to-day," she said. 
 
 The train drew up at the station, and 
 they all rose to pass out. 
 
 " She is altogether beautiful," said 
 Hugh to himself, as he watched her, and 
 a look of intense admiration flashed into 
 his eyes. Helen caught the expression. 
 
 " He is weaker than he looks," she said 
 to herself, with a little pang of disappoint- 
 ment. " He is only like all the rest. I 
 wish Tom had never brought him, be- 
 cause if he interests her she will break 
 his heart." In the dressing-room she 
 made one more attempt to rescue her 
 rector. 
 
 "My dear," said Lucy, coolly, "it is 
 my private opinion that the reverend gen- 
 tleman can take very good care of him- 
 self. I am not the first woman he has 
 ever met. He must know us pretty thor- 
 oughly ; besides, he is familiar with my 
 reputation, he was kind enough to tell 
 me so. I have not had time to make up 
 my mind about him, but when I do I'll let 
 you know." 
 
 Helen gave a sigh and a little shrug.
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR // 
 
 "At least I have done what I could," 
 she murmured to herself. 
 
 A few minutes later they were all stand- 
 ing out near the first tee. 
 
 " This is delicious ! " exclaimed the Rev- 
 erend Hugh, inhaling deep breaths of the 
 fragrant air. " It makes me doubly glad 
 that I'm alive. I wonder what kind of 
 characters we would develop if after our 
 elaborate education we settled down to a 
 simple country life." 
 
 " I'm afraid we would become rather 
 bovine," suggested Lucy. 
 
 "Or else very honest and simple and 
 unpretending," added Tom. 
 
 "Then we should be stupid," cried 
 Lucy. " Good people always are, they 
 stop and turn back just when things be- 
 gin to get interesting ; when one has been 
 wicked, it is so comfortable to repent, 
 and after one has repented, it is so de- 
 licious to be wicked again." 
 
 "You speak with feeling," said Hugh, 
 cuttingly. 
 
 " Of course ; I've no doubt you could 
 also, if you would."
 
 78 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " We are all miserable sinners," said 
 Tom, in a cheerful voice. 
 
 "All except me," laughed Lucy, auda- 
 ciously. " I may be a sinner, but I'm 
 never miserable. It doesn't pay, and 
 then I've always done exactly as I like, 
 and it has never bothered anybody ! " 
 
 " Of course not," said Tom, with a faint 
 tinge of sarcasm ; " the queen can do no 
 wrong." 
 
 " Let's play golf," suggested Helen, 
 indulging in a magnificent trial swing. 
 
 A number of men had come out to see 
 the start; and had gathered around the 
 girls as they talked. 
 
 " Please run away and play," said Lucy 
 to them all, with pretty authority ; " this 
 is not a social affair, it is to be a hard 
 fought battle. I warn you, Mr. Pierson, 
 that if through any mistake of yours we 
 lose I shall never forgive you. There is 
 one thing I will not do to-day. I will not 
 play a losing game." 
 
 " Will not ? " asked Tom. 
 
 " Will not," she answered, firmly. 
 
 " I must tell you that there is deadly
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 79 
 
 rivalry between these two," explained Tom, 
 turning to Hugh. " They each have their 
 name on the championship cup, and they 
 play for it again very soon. It is impossible 
 to say which will win ; it will simply be a 
 question of nerve, I fancy. No one else 
 has even a ghost of a chance." 
 
 Both men drove well away, and they 
 were off. The day before had been 
 showery, and the turf was soft and 
 springy under their feet. Little white 
 clouds drifted across the sun, bringing 
 first light, then shadow, like changing 
 thoughts across a woman's face. One 
 could almost see the bursting of the 
 swollen buds, and all the little streams 
 hurried along busily. The girls in their 
 red coats made a delicious bit of colour 
 against the still, sombre monotone of 
 awakening nature. 
 
 " It is my honour," said Helen, at the 
 second tee ; and, stooping down, she started 
 to tee her ball. 
 
 " Allow me," said the Reverend Hugh, 
 springing forward. 
 
 " No, thank you," Helen answered, with
 
 80 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 a little smile, " I always tee my own 
 balls." 
 
 Hugh turned to Tom with a delighted 
 look. 
 
 "The test of a true golfer," he said. 
 " I see it is to be no tea-party, after 
 all." 
 
 " Shall it be a ball a hole, brother ? " 
 suggested Arnold. 
 
 " Yes, if you like," answered Hugh. 
 
 It was soon evident that the match was 
 to be a good one. Tom and Helen played 
 along with a perfect understanding of each 
 other's game delightful to see. 
 
 Miss Middleton was evidently in excel- 
 lent form, and the Reverend Hugh, while 
 at first a little stiff, soon got into his long 
 St. Andrew's swing. 
 
 " He hasn't been an athlete all his life 
 for nothing," said Arnold to Helen, watch- 
 ing him drive. 
 
 At the end of the first nine holes Tom 
 and his wife were two up, and Hugh began 
 to study the method of both girls with the 
 greatest care. Helen played with the cool- 
 est kind of judgment, content when in
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 8 1 
 
 difficulty to play back into the course with 
 the loss of one, rather than attempt im- 
 possibilities. Miss Middleton, while very 
 brilliant, was evidently a victim to the 
 long driving habit, and pressed constantly. 
 She rarely played safe, but, relying on 
 her really superior skill, took tremendous 
 chances. She never thought of consult- 
 ing her partner, but played her own game, 
 while he, with growing irritation, watched 
 her lose two or three important strokes 
 through bad judgment. 
 
 At the eleventh hole, the men had 
 driven. Tom put rather a short ball this 
 side of the brook, while the Reverend 
 Hugh cleared the hazard triumphantly, 
 and appeared to have forced a very good 
 lie. Upon coming up to it, however, he 
 found the ball in a cup, and observed with 
 horror that Miss Middleton took out her 
 brassey. 
 
 " Do you think you had better attempt 
 that club ? " he finally ventured to ask. 
 
 " Oh, yes," she answered, confidently, 
 " it is very much laid back, and made to 
 pick up just such a ball." Taking a full
 
 82 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 swing, she brought the club down too 
 straight, topping badly, and burying the 
 ball deep into the ground. 
 
 " I wonder how I ever came to do that," 
 she exclaimed, with surprise. " I must 
 have taken my eye off." 
 
 " Your eye had nothing to do with it. 
 You used bad judgment, and I told you 
 so," answered Hugh, decidedly. 
 
 Miss Middleton looked at him in undis- 
 guised astonishment. 
 
 " I think I understand my own game," 
 she remarked, coldly. 
 
 " Possibly you do, but I understand it 
 better," he retorted, quietly. 
 
 Miss Middleton's eyes flashed, but she 
 remained silent. 
 
 On the green, she made a remarkably 
 clever put, halving the hole, and Hugh 
 relaxed a little. 
 
 "That was a beauty," he said, enthusi- 
 astically. 
 
 The contest grew more interesting, 
 Hugh and Miss Middleton keeping Tom 
 and his wife well in hand, although they 
 still held their lead of two holes, and Tom
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 83 
 
 had developed a putting streak that would 
 have discouraged Douglas himself. 
 
 " Dormie two," said Arnold to Hugh, as 
 they crossed to the sixteenth tee. 
 
 " We'll make you play an extra hole," 
 replied Hugh. " No match is won until 
 it's won." 
 
 Lucy and her partner made the seven- 
 teenth hole in four, which was one better 
 than bogie, and Lucy was jubilant. 
 
 " Who says we won't halve it," she said, 
 tossing a ball high into the air, and catch- 
 ing it dexterously. It was Lucy's honour, 
 and she made a beautiful drive from the 
 home tee. Helen put a ball very near her, 
 securing a perfect lie. Tom playing the 
 odd, tried to do too much, and pressing, 
 gained only a few feet. 
 
 Helen gave a little exclamation of de- 
 spair. 
 
 " Steady, meh lady, we are not dead yet," 
 said Tom, smiling down at her. Hugh, 
 playing the like, made a beautiful brassey, 
 but the ball stopped rolling just in front 
 of a little hummock, giving Lucy a 
 wretched lie. Helen playing the odd,
 
 84 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and a little off her nerve, foozled badly, 
 and refused to be comforted. 
 
 Lucy looked at her ball doubtfully. 
 
 " How maddening ! " she cried, studying 
 the lie carefully. 
 
 " Please don't take that club," said 
 Hugh, hastily, as she finally put her hand 
 on her brassey. 
 
 " I certainly shall," she answered, wil- 
 fully. 
 
 " But it is a hanging lie, as well as 
 almost bunkered. If you must get dis- 
 tance, take your mashie-iron and put it 
 there," pointing to a level piece of turf 
 just this side of the road. 
 
 " I shall do nothing of the kind," she 
 retorted, deliberately. 
 
 Standing a little too far away, she toed 
 the ball, and it flew directly at right angles, 
 apparently landing in a clump of rhododen- 
 dron bushes. 
 
 " There ! " she cried, in a passion, and, 
 turning to Hugh with flashing eyes, " this 
 comes of your interference. I wish you 
 would leave me alone. I can not play 
 when I am coached every other minute ! "
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 85 
 
 Hugh looked black, then, throwing his 
 head back, he burst into a laugh, and 
 turned to Miss Middleton with bright good 
 humour. 
 
 "Perhaps I have bothered you," he 
 admitted, frankly. " I won't again." 
 
 " It is rather late in the day to mend 
 matters," she answered, still wrathful. 
 
 " Come, children, don't quarrel. You 
 have only lost one stroke, and the ball is 
 quite playable," called Tom from the other 
 side of the course. 
 
 Tom playing the odd, put a ball just 
 this side of the green, and Hugh, on 
 the like, made a beautiful iron, and 
 landed about six feet away from the 
 hole. 
 
 Helen put dead, and Lucy, studying 
 the green, decided to put for the hole. 
 She caught the roll beautifully, and the 
 ball dropped in. 
 
 " It was our only chance for the match," 
 she said, half apologetically, to Hugh. 
 
 " I told you we'd do it," said Hugh, not 
 noticing Tom's expression. 
 
 "Don't speak to me," cried Helen,
 
 86 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 almost in tears. "We played that last 
 hole like duffers." 
 
 " We certainly did," assented Tom, rue- 
 fully. 
 
 " I hope we won't do any more halving," 
 said Helen, with a little sigh. 
 
 " My inherited honour, I think," said 
 Hugh, stepping up on the tee. 
 
 " What a wretched ball," stopping sud- 
 denly; "perhaps you have a better one 
 you might lend me, if you will, Miss 
 Middleton." 
 
 " Mine is rather shabby, too," she an- 
 swered, "but it is better than yours, I 
 think." 
 
 " Eureka," he said, reading the name ; 
 " I don't know it." 
 
 " It's the only kind I ever play with," 
 Lucy replied. 
 
 Hugh drove a long ball, but pulled 
 badly, landing well out of the course, in 
 the long grass. The caddie, whose little 
 legs probably ached with much walking, 
 began his search languidly. 
 
 "There goes our chance," said Hugh, 
 mournfully.
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 87 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," answered Miss 
 Middleton, " it's not so bad." 
 
 He gave her a grateful little glance. 
 
 Tom drove a beautifully straight ball, 
 but drove into one of the ravines guarding 
 the green. They were nasty little hazards, 
 and Lucy's spirits rose. 
 
 " You see," she said, turning to Hugh, 
 "fortune appears to be impartial." 
 
 Hugh's caddie was still searching, in a 
 hopeless kind of a way, and when Lucy's 
 caddie joined him the two seemed to 
 accomplish even less. 
 
 "Those boys will never find it," ex- 
 claimed Hugh, " we had better look for it 
 ourselves. We cant lose that ball now ! " 
 
 In the meantime Helen had played and 
 put the ball half-way up the bank. Tom, 
 playing two more, put it on the far side 
 of the green. "Let's go over and help 
 them," he suggested. 
 
 They all searched diligently, but with- 
 out success, and the precious five minutes 
 were almost over. 
 
 "Here it is, oh, joy!" cried Lucy, sud- 
 denly.
 
 88 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 She looked flushed and delighted, and, 
 bending down, pressed back the grass so 
 that she could play the ball. The others 
 all stopped in surprise. 
 
 " I had no idea it was so far in," said 
 Tom. " Those caddies had about as much 
 of an idea where it fell as the Angel 
 Gabriel." 
 
 " I'm so glad you found it," said Helen. 
 "I detest winning a match on a lost ball." 
 
 Lucy, taking her heavy mashie, played 
 one off two, and put the ball in the course. 
 Helen playing two more, was not up, and 
 gave Tom what he called a " heart disease " 
 put. 
 
 Hugh, who toward the end of the 
 match had played as though inspired, 
 made a beautiful approach, and the ball 
 lay dead. Tom made a heroic try, but 
 just rimmed the cup, and would not drop 
 in, the match going to Hugh and Miss 
 Middleton. 
 
 Hugh stooped and picked up their ball, 
 then turning to Tom he held out his hand. 
 
 "I doubt if we deserved it, old man." 
 
 " I know you didn't," said Tom, with a
 
 A MATTEK OF HONOUR 89 
 
 good-natured laugh. " Run along, girls, 
 and order tea, we'll be with you in half a 
 minute." 
 
 They all soon gathered around the table, 
 which was placed outside on the glass- 
 covered piazza. The sun was just setting, 
 and the keen cold blue of the sky was 
 broken by long lines of clouds in palest 
 gold. The river looked like polished steel ; 
 the dusk came silently. 
 
 " Oh, melting moment," said Hugh, con- 
 tentedly seating himself, "tea, toasted 
 muffins, and marmalade ; it sounds almost 
 too good to be true." 
 
 " It's too good to last," laughed Helen. 
 
 " Isn't it nice to sit back and do nothing 
 while Helen does the honours ? " remarked 
 Lucy. " It's always the way with honours. 
 The people who do them usually get all 
 the responsibility and none of the fun." 
 
 " If you mean to imply that I'm not 
 going to have any muffins, you are mis- 
 taken," remarked Helen, decidedly. 
 
 " I can't get over that match," said 
 Tom, reflectively. " If you will pardon 
 my saying so," turning to Lucy, " it was
 
 9O DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 absolutely the most bull-headed luck all 
 the way through, for Helen and I out- 
 played you right up to the eighteenth 
 hole." 
 
 " And then we made gooses of our- 
 selves," added Helen, mournfully. 
 
 " It was wonderful luck finding that 
 ball of mine," said Hugh, taking it out of 
 his pocket, "the grass was miles high. 
 Why, where did I get this ? it's an A-i- 
 Black." 
 
 " It's your old ball, is it not ? " asked 
 Helen. 
 
 " No ; I played with Silvertowns to-day, 
 and I made the last drive with a Eureka. 
 Don't you remember I borrowed Miss 
 Middleton's ball, and when we holed out 
 I picked ours up. I recollect doing so 
 distinctly. I must have it here some- 
 where." 
 
 He went through all his pockets again, 
 but without success. Suddenly he stopped 
 as though struck by an unpleasant sus- 
 picion. Leaning forward in his chair, he 
 looked into Lucy's eyes. She returned 
 his gaze steadily but grew pale. Tom and
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 91 
 
 Helen glanced from one to the other in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Was that our ball you played ? " he 
 asked, in a low voice. 
 
 Lucy looked haughtily past him. 
 
 "I do not understand you, Mr. Pierson." 
 
 " You do not answer my question," 
 persisted Hugh. " Was that our ball ? " 
 
 " I refuse to answer," she replied, coolly ; 
 "you are insulting." 
 
 Hugh reached her side in one stride, 
 and his hand closed over her arm in a 
 grasp like a vise. He was deadly pale, and 
 his eyes glowed dangerously. 
 
 " Was that our ball, or was it not ? " he 
 repeated, giving her a little shake. 
 
 " How dare you touch me ! " cried Lucy, 
 springing to her feet and struggling to 
 free herself. " Let me go ! You are 
 insufferable ! " 
 
 " Answer me ! " he insisted, tightening 
 his hold, and the blue eyes looked into 
 the angry brown ones with a glance that 
 cut like steel. 
 
 Lucy suddenly became quiet, and they 
 both stood silent for a moment.
 
 92 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " It was not our ball," she said, at length, 
 and speaking with difficulty. " I noticed 
 it was not when I pressed the grass back." 
 
 Hugh, suddenly released her, and leaned 
 against one of the pillars of the piazza. 
 He passed his hand once or twice across 
 his eyes as though trying to understand 
 what he had heard. 
 
 " You are making me appear dishonour- 
 able," cried Lucy, passionately. 
 
 "You are dishonourable," answered 
 Hugh, sternly. " You would have ac- 
 cepted the match knowing the ball was 
 not ours." He raised his eyes and looked 
 at her. " You said this afternoon that 
 you always did whatever you liked, and 
 it made no difference to other people. It 
 makes a very great difference to a great 
 many people. Your wealth, your position, 
 what are they in themselves ? It is only 
 the use you make of them, the use you 
 make of yourself, that counts. The only 
 thing you might have actually won for 
 yourself, character, you have laughed 
 at and scorned. Is it possible that you 
 can really be so blind, so spoiled, that you
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 93 
 
 do not know a woman without a soul, 
 without honour, is the saddest, the empti- 
 est thing on all God's earth ? " 
 
 He stopped abruptly and turned to Mrs. 
 Arnold. 
 
 "Good afternoon," he said, bowing low 
 over her hand. " I am so glad to have had 
 this opportunity of meeting you. What 
 time is it ? " turning to Tom. " I think I 
 can get the express." 
 
 As the men walked away, Helen went 
 up to Lucy, and put her arm around her. 
 
 " Deart Heart, what possessed you ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 Lucy gave a little tearless sob. 
 
 " Send for the carriage," Helen said to 
 a servant who passed. 
 
 They waited for Tom, and then drove 
 home in silence. 
 
 That evening, after dinner, the three 
 were gathered together in the library. 
 The wood fire burned brightly, filling the 
 room with a ruddy glow. Lucy sat in a 
 great armchair, her pale, beautiful face 
 and perfect figure standing out vividly 
 against the crimson background. There
 
 94 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 were heavy rings under her eyes, and the 
 long dark lashes seemed too great a weight 
 for the full white lids. She was pretending 
 to read, and turned the pages of her book 
 mechanically. At last she rose. 
 
 " I am very tired," she said ; " perhaps 
 you will excuse me if I go to my room." 
 
 " Certainly, dear," answered Helen. 
 
 Lucy walked toward the door, then 
 turned suddenly. 
 
 "You asked me to tell you what I 
 thought of your friend," she said, looking 
 at Helen. " I hate him," and the heavy 
 portieres fell together behind her. 
 
 Tom gave a low whistle. 
 
 " Here endeth the first lesson," he said 
 as his wife came toward him and seated 
 herself on the arm of his chair. 
 
 "I'm afraid it is the very first lesson," 
 she replied, sadly. "No one has ever 
 spoken to Lucy in that way before." 
 
 " Hugh took it very hard," said Tom. 
 
 " Yes, I was a little surprised." 
 
 " Perhaps for his sake it is just as well 
 it ended as it did. He might have wasted 
 his life for her."
 
 A MATTER OF HONOUR 95 
 
 Tom reached up and took his wife's 
 hand. He lightly kissed the wedding-ring 
 on her finger. 
 
 " Dear little hand," he said, tenderly, 
 " it was a happy day for me when it be- 
 came mine. We are wasting our lives on 
 each other," laughing a little. 
 
 " Yes," she answered, dreamily, looking 
 into the fire, "and sometimes I cannot 
 quite believe that we are actually married." 
 
 "And living happily ever after," he 
 added, contentedly, and sent a great ring 
 of smoke rolling out and floating away.
 
 THE SECOND LESSON
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 
 
 IN the rude little station at Montauk 
 Point a girl was bending over the 
 prostrate figure of a young soldier 
 stretched out on the bare floor, his 
 knapsack under his head for a pillow. 
 His face was yellow, ghastly, with fever 
 and privation. A comrade, scarcely less 
 weak, was trying to put the best face on 
 the matter. 
 
 " You see, lady, we wouldn't wait to get 
 well in the hospital," he said, apologeti- 
 cally. "'Tain't their fault we're here. 
 We're just crazy to get home. He's 
 going out to Ohio, and I'm going almost 
 there, so I'll be able to look after him." 
 
 " To Ohio ! " Something in the girl's 
 voice must have penetrated to the dim inner 
 99
 
 IOO DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 consciousness of the sick man's brain, for 
 he opened his eyes and looked into her 
 face with a pathetic attempt at a smile. 
 
 "I'm not dead yet," he said, faintly. 
 Tears rushed into her eyes, and, that the 
 men might not see them, she bent her 
 head and pretended to busy herself with 
 his coverings. 
 
 " It is almost time for you to be getting 
 on board," she said, glancing at her watch. 
 " Do you think you could manage to walk 
 a few steps if I helped you ? " Without 
 waiting for an answer she slipped her hand 
 under his head, then, putting her arm 
 around his shoulder, she raised him to a 
 sitting position. 
 
 " He's too heavy for you, lady," said his 
 comrade, struggling to his feet. 
 
 " Not with your help," she answered. 
 " We can lift him quite easily, and you," 
 turning to the sick, man, "must put one 
 arm over my shoulder, and the other 
 around your friend, and do not be afraid 
 to lean heavily on me." 
 
 In this wise, slowly, and with much 
 difficulty, the three proceeded toward the
 
 THE SECOND LESSON IOI 
 
 platform. People separated right and left 
 as they approached. Reaching the door 
 they confronted the Reverend Hugh Pier- 
 son, who was about to enter. 
 
 " Miss Middleton ! " he exclaimed, fall- 
 ing back in his astonishment, then he 
 moved quickly toward her. "Allow me 
 to take your place, this is too much for 
 you." 
 
 " No, we cannot change now ; he is not 
 able," she answered, earnestly ; " but you 
 can help me very much by getting me two 
 seats for these men. Turn them together 
 so that they can put their feet up," she 
 called after him. 
 
 Hugh sprang into the train. It was 
 crowded, but at the magic words, " Sick 
 soldiers," he was offered a dozen seats. 
 Then he rushed out to get the men some 
 beef tea, while Lucy with difficulty seated 
 them comfortably in their places. The 
 conductor shouted, "All aboard," but 
 Lucy delayed a moment to speak to some 
 people whom she knew, and the train was 
 already starting as she sprang to the plat- 
 form. She saw the Reverend Hugh wait-
 
 102 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 ing for her, and the tall, athletic figure 
 in gray tweeds, the strong, magnetic face, 
 brought back with sudden vividness the 
 circumstances of their first meeting. He 
 saw the flash of recollection cross her face, 
 saw her take upon herself the cold indif- 
 ference of a woman of the world, and with 
 an inward shrug prepared to face the 
 inevitable. She started to pass him with 
 a little bow. 
 
 " Pardon me," he said, " but where are 
 your friends, won't you allow me to take 
 you to them ? " 
 
 " Thank you, but it will not be neces- 
 sary." 
 
 " I think it will be necessary," he per- 
 sisted, " unless they are here with you at 
 the station ? " 
 
 She coloured, and looked a little con- 
 fused. 
 
 "They are not very far from here," she 
 answered, hurriedly. " I need not trouble 
 you, really," and, without giving him time 
 to protest, she slipped past him and went 
 into the waiting-room. Crossing it, she 
 came out on the other side, and looked
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 103 
 
 around anxiously for one of the many 
 stages which carried passengers to the 
 camp. They were all crowded to suffo- 
 cation, and, with a last despairing glance, 
 she decided to walk. 
 
 Hugh watched her for a few moments, 
 then deliberately started out to overtake 
 her. When he had done so, and she rec- 
 ognised him, she turned pale with anger. 
 
 "Mr. Pierson," she said, stopping and 
 standing ankle deep in the white dust, " I 
 think you might have saved me this. I 
 do not want you, and I am doing my 
 best to get away from you." 
 
 " I know it," he answered, " but even 
 then I will not leave you until I see you 
 safely with your friends." 
 
 " Then in all probability we shall have 
 to spend the afternoon together, for I have 
 lost my friends." 
 
 Hugh's face fell. "I am sorry," he 
 said, with such evident pity for himself as 
 well as for her that Lucy's anger reached 
 the boiling point. 
 
 They walked on together in silence. 
 The rough, hastily made road stretched
 
 104 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 before them crowded with vehicles of all 
 descriptions, from the picturesque army 
 wagon, with its long train of mules and 
 shouting darky driver, to the " scorcher " 
 bent double on his wheel. Squads of 
 soldiers, infantry, artillery, engineers, 
 passed up and down incessantly ; troopers 
 strongly outlined against the sky rode 
 slowly with their long trains of horses to 
 water. Orderlies dashed here and there ; 
 the bugle, now near, now far, echoed 
 and reechoed musically, while over all 
 sifted the fine white dust and the August 
 sunshine in widespread, generous impar- 
 tiality. Thousands of little white tents 
 were grouped here, there, and everywhere, 
 looking like flocks of sea birds resting, 
 and one could hear the distant booming 
 of the surf, ceaseless, impersonal, mys- 
 terious as eternity. 
 
 " Where are we bound ? " Hugh asked 
 at length, as they reached the summit of 
 the plateau. 
 
 " / am going to the general hospital," 
 Lucy answered. " I promised to write 
 some letters for one or two of the men
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 105 
 
 who are getting better. Poor fellows ! 
 they have been ill weeks and weeks, and 
 their people do not know whether they 
 are alive or dead." She stopped with a 
 little choking cough. 
 
 " Have you been here much ? " he asked, 
 gently. 
 
 " Almost every day. I have been go- 
 ing to the regulars, the Eighth and 
 Thirteenth. They have had nothing, lit- 
 erally nothing, and " she stopped. 
 " The surgeons will tell you all you may 
 care to know. Here is the hospital. I 
 really need not trouble you further." 
 
 Hugh bowed, and lifted the canvas flap 
 of the door into one of the great wards. 
 He watched her greet the nurses, and 
 then move slowly from cot to cot. The 
 men seemed to know her well, and she 
 had a word and a smile for every one. 
 Then Hugh turned, and went his way, 
 finding plenty for his own willing hands, 
 plenty to wring his heart, but, through 
 it all, like a subtle undercurrent, ran his 
 amazement at the unexpected develop- 
 ment in the character of a girl whom he
 
 106 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 had heard was altogether heartless and 
 without sympathy. 
 
 The afternoon waxed and waned, visi- 
 tors crowded into the stages, or wandered 
 disconsolately down the road. At length 
 Hugh glanced at his watch, and saw that 
 if he was to catch the last train he must 
 start almost immediately. As he hur- 
 ried from the main hospital through one 
 of the great annexes, he caught a glimpse 
 of Lucy. He went up to her at once. 
 
 " It is time to go," he said, quietly. 
 " If you will get your things together and 
 wait for me at the door I will try and get 
 seats in one of the stages." 
 
 She assented, and in a few moments 
 was standing outside of the hospital tent. 
 He was longer than she anticipated, and, 
 leaning against one of the hitching-posts, 
 she realised that she was dead tired, and 
 actually glad to be in the hands of her 
 enemy. After what seemed to her an 
 eternity he appeared. 
 
 " I could not get seats anywhere," he 
 called, impatiently, " but 
 
 " Must we walk back, then ? " she inter-
 
 THE SECOND LESSON IO/ 
 
 rupted, trying to brace herself for a fresh 
 effort. 
 
 "No, but I'm afraid you'll be very un- 
 comfortable ; I persuaded one of the 
 mule teams to wait for us just down the 
 road." 
 
 " For what place shall I buy your 
 ticket ? " Hugh asked, as he helped Miss 
 Middleton down after their dusty ride. 
 
 " I have it, thanks," she answered. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " he questioned, 
 in a tone not to be gainsaid. 
 
 "To Beverly," she replied, too tired to 
 fence further. 
 
 He looked up in amusement. 
 
 "Why, so am I. With whom are you 
 staying ? " 
 
 "With the Biglows." 
 
 He stared at her for a moment, then 
 burst into a great boyish laugh. 
 
 "What is it ?" she asked, flushing. 
 
 " It is too funny," he replied, recovering 
 himself. "You will be so disgusted I 
 really hate to say it, but /, too, am going 
 to the Biglows." 
 
 He made an effort to take the situation
 
 IO8 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 seriously, especially when he saw how his 
 announcement distressed her. 
 
 "They did not speak of it," she mur- 
 mured, half to herself. 
 
 " No ; I usually come and go unques- 
 tioned. It is almost my home. But I 
 will do my very best to keep out of your 
 way," he added, earnestly. " You know 
 we need hardly see each other, certainly 
 need never talk to each other, except to 
 say good morning, or good night, or 
 shall I give up going there altogether ? " 
 A maddening little smile danced in his eyes, 
 and tugged at the corners of his mouth. 
 
 " Certainly not," she answered, indig- 
 nantly. "How can you imagine that your 
 coming or going could possibly affect me ! 
 If you will be good enough to go your 
 way, I shall go mine." 
 
 " As you wish," he retorted, evenly. 
 
 The next day they all amused themselves 
 bathing and playing golf. The girls were 
 deep in plans for an Invitation Tournament 
 to be held at Longmere in about ten days. 
 
 " You have such a good chance for it, 
 Lucy," said May, as they were seated on
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 109 
 
 the piazza after dinner. "Not one of 
 those girls can touch you, as you are 
 playing now." 
 
 "I'll do my best," said Lucy, with a 
 laugh, but if I have anything on my mind 
 I am undone. Unless Mother Biglow will 
 let me go over to Montauk and finish what 
 I have begun, I know I shall not be able 
 to hit a ball." 
 
 " Let her go, mother," said May. " She 
 will never get lost again, and you know 
 Hugh says he expects to be there half the 
 time, and he can look after her." 
 
 " Delighted," said the Reverend Hugh, 
 rising to the occasion, but boiling inwardly. 
 
 Lucy said nothing. She thought of 
 giving up the idea of going altogether. 
 A little later Hugh sauntered over to 
 her. 
 
 "Is it to be a truce, then," he asked, 
 " while the Montauk fever lasts ? " She 
 made no answer. 
 
 " I shall be very glad to take you if you 
 will consent to do as I tell you," he con- 
 tinued, calmly. " But you must allow me 
 to be the judge of where you are to be left
 
 I IO DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 for the day. I shall have my own work to 
 attend to, and cannot stay with you all the 
 time. If this arrangement is agreeable we 
 will take the early train to-morrow morn- 
 ing." He waited a moment. Receiving 
 no reply, he went back to his comfortable 
 lounging-chair. 
 
 The next morning, much to his sur- 
 prise, Lucy appeared at early breakfast. 
 He greeted her with a little look of 
 mingled respect and amusement. 
 
 "Well," he said, teasingly, "are we to 
 talk or not to talk ? " 
 
 " I think," she answered, sipping her 
 coffee, "that you will just about have 
 time to read your morning paper." 
 
 " But the paper doesn't arrive so early," 
 he protested, in comic dismay. 
 
 "Then you may look out of the win- 
 dow." 
 
 In this way the ill-assorted couple pro- 
 ceeded almost daily to Montauk, he taking 
 her at her word, always buried in a book ; 
 she, although obeyed to the letter, wish- 
 ing with feminine inconsistency that the 
 book could be sent to Jericho. In what
 
 THE SECOND LESSON III 
 
 appeared to her a marvellous manner, he 
 almost always divined where she wished 
 to spend her day, but, after taking her 
 there, he dropped her with the ease and 
 celerity with which he would have dropped 
 an inanimate bundle. What most sur- 
 prised him was the fact that she always 
 obeyed him, and he used to come upon her 
 pretty tired figure watching patiently in 
 the exact spot which he had sternly indi- 
 cated in the morning. But once home, 
 her docility vanished, and she showed 
 her dislike and antagonism in a thousand 
 subtle little ways that were the amuse- 
 ment and despair of the Biglow house- 
 hold. 
 
 Lucy's devotion to "Her Soldiers" 
 lasted almost a week, then pride revolted 
 and Montauk saw her no more. 
 
 ii 
 
 The day after Lucy's desertion the girls 
 went over to Longmere to study the 
 course. The tournament promised to 
 bring together all the best players,
 
 112 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and every one felt the need of practice. 
 Miss Middleton went into it with great 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 " Our Lucy is herself again ! " said May 
 to her father, with a mischievous smile. 
 " I must confess that I understand her 
 better when she is driving golf balls 
 than when she is nursing sick soldiers 
 and accepting snubs from a parson." 
 
 There were thirty entries for the quali- 
 fying round, the first eight to play off for 
 championship, the second eight to play in 
 a consolation. The golf committee had 
 decided that the entire eighteen holes 
 were too long and difficult for three 
 days' consecutive play, so twelve holes 
 were selected, twenty-four to qualify, and 
 twenty-four in the finals, the intermediate 
 matches to be twelve holes only. 
 
 Lucy was playing in her best form 
 and finished in the first flight, while May 
 qualified for the consolation. 
 
 The drawings after the preliminary 
 rounds promised good matches, and every 
 one was in a high state of excitement. 
 On the second day Mr. Biglow brought
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 113 
 
 the Reverend Hugh over to see the 
 course. 
 
 "We should be able to get in a round 
 after those tiresome girls have started ; 
 they are the greatest nuisance on earth," 
 he grumbled, trying to look as though he 
 meant it. 
 
 Both May and Lucy won their matches 
 on the second morning, but after luncheon 
 May fell by the wayside. Lucy, however, 
 was again victorious, although the rain had 
 come down in sheets and surprises were 
 the order of the day. She was surrounded 
 by crowds offering suggestions and con- 
 gratulations. She was a social as well 
 as golfing success, but made few friends 
 and many enemies. She went her way 
 lightly, almost insolently, winning whom 
 she chose, and passing over the rest with 
 careless indifference. 
 
 " The woman you are going to play with 
 to-morrow is a cat, a perfect cat," said a 
 popular ex-champion, vindictively. "She 
 only won by an accident this afternoon, 
 it was the weather, of course, and ever 
 since the earth has been too small to hold
 
 114 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 her. There is nothing she won't do, abso- 
 lutely nothing, my dear, so keep your eyes 
 open, and look out for tricks." 
 
 About half -past five they all gathered in 
 groups around the great open fire. Mr. 
 Biglow and the Reverend Hugh were 
 seated with May and Miss Middleton. 
 It was a very jolly crowd, and Lucy was 
 in the wildest spirits. Her cheeks burned 
 with feverish colour and she flirted outra- 
 geously with half a dozen college men 
 who hung around her. Her one object 
 in life seemed to be to scandalise the Rev- 
 erend Hugh, and May watched her out 
 of the corners of her eyes in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 " Why, who is that ? " Lucy exclaimed 
 at the top of her voice, as a magnificent 
 looking fellow opened the door and shook 
 off the rain from his great coat. " Do 
 you know him, Mr. Borman ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know him well. It's Rob- 
 bins, the stroke of the Yale crew." 
 
 "Then go and bring him over at once" 
 cried Lucy, " I simply must have him, I 
 can't live without him another minute."
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 115 
 
 Hugh rose and May sent him a little 
 imploring glance. 
 
 " I'll be around when you want me," 
 he said, and turned toward the smoking 
 room. 
 
 " Miss Middleton seems to be quite in 
 the air, a little entette" said one of the 
 older women, with a disagreeable smile. 
 
 When Lucy and her opponent, Mrs. 
 Connors, started out to play their match 
 the next morning, the course had dried 
 up considerably, but the weather was still 
 cloudy. There was a large gallery, and 
 general expectation was in Lucy's favour. 
 Every one seemed to detest Mrs. Connors, 
 who was ultra sporty, and had a nasty 
 little way of saying both truths and un- 
 truths. She knew every one was against 
 her, but it had absolutely no effect upon 
 her nerve, and, winning the toss, she drove 
 a superb ball far beyond the first bunker. 
 It was a discouraging start for Lucy, but 
 she seemed cool and collected, and put a 
 ball almost as far. May was carrying, 
 and the girls made a pretty picture as 
 they started down the course together.
 
 Il6 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 At the end of the sixth hole, every one 
 saw it was to be a pitched battle. The 
 seventh hole punished a bad drive merci- 
 lessly, but the hazard once carried, it 
 could be done in a low figure. Lucy 
 approached the tee with fear and trem- 
 bling, as she had missed her drive there 
 several times, and felt it to be her " hoo- 
 doo." She cleared the hazard beautifully, 
 however, and gave a great sigh of relief. 
 Mrs. Connors was well over, and made 
 a pretty second shot, playing the odd. 
 Lucy played the like, and for some un- 
 known reason made a "flub-dub" then 
 on the odd she made a fine iron and 
 gained about seventy yards. Mrs. Con- 
 nors playing the like tried a long ap- 
 proach, but fell short, while Lucy playing 
 the odd landed about a yard and a half 
 from the hole. Mrs. Connors playing the 
 like again, approached short, and on the 
 odd put dead. Lucy looked at her in sur- 
 prise, then, taking a careful line, holed out. 
 "Your greens are simply delicious, one 
 can't help going in," she said. "Five 
 six, I believe."
 
 THE SECOND LESSON \\J 
 
 " Six all, you mean," said Mrs. Connors, 
 stopping short. 
 
 "I beg your pardon, I meant five 
 six." 
 
 " I don't see it, Miss Middleton," said 
 Mrs. Connors, shortly. 
 
 "Then I'll explain it," replied Lucy. 
 " I drove the hazard, didn't I ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Playing two I missed ; three was a 
 good cleek shot, four was an approach, 
 and on five I holed out." 
 
 Mrs. Connors looked unconvinced. 
 
 " I think you have failed to count one 
 stroke," she said, decidedly. 
 
 " You are allowing for two on the 
 green," replied Lucy, keeping her temper, 
 " but if you remember I made a lucky put, 
 and went in. I can see how you might 
 have miscounted." 
 
 "We will refer it to the golf commit- 
 tee, since it seems to be your word against 
 mine," said Mrs. Connors, coolly. 
 
 They walked to the next tee in si- 
 lence, the gallery following. Just as 
 Lucy was about to drive, Mrs. Connors
 
 Il8 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 turned to a young woman standing near- 
 by. 
 
 " Will you act as scorer ? " she asked, 
 handing her the card and pencil. " Shall 
 you mind, Miss Middleton ? It will be so 
 much more satisfactory." 
 
 " I shall be very glad, if you wish it," 
 she answered, quietly. 
 
 Although inwardly furious, Lucy kept 
 her nerve, playing on steadily, and, at 
 the end of the morning round, was one 
 up, not counting the disputed hole. 
 
 Upon reaching the house, Mrs. Connors 
 entered her protest, and the club was 
 soon buzzing with comments and specula- 
 tions. 
 
 "This is the result of trying to make 
 a tournament a social affair," said the 
 chairman of the committee, disgustedly. 
 " A match is a match, and should have an 
 official scorer every time. No other way 
 is fair." 
 
 " But women don't usually play that 
 way," said one of the men, in an injured 
 voice. 
 
 " I know they don't, but it's the unex-
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 119 
 
 pected that always happens, especially with 
 Mrs. Connors in the case." 
 
 May was bitterly indignant, as she had 
 counted Lucy's score, but, acting as caddie, 
 had been unable to make any statement 
 that Mrs. Connors would accept. Lucy 
 only laughed, and said she did not care. 
 Just as they were all going in to luncheon, 
 she turned back to speak to Mr. Biglow, 
 and saw the Reverend Hugh standing 
 silent among a group of men, who were 
 evidently discussing the occurrence of the 
 morning. Their eyes met, holding each 
 other for an instant, and Lucy saw that 
 he doubted her. She coloured crimson, 
 then turned and hastily entered the 
 dining-room. 
 
 " Of course he doubts me, how can he 
 help it ? " she kept saying to herself. Just 
 before starting on the final round, she 
 happened to see him standing alone in 
 the outer room, looking for a match to 
 light his pipe. She went up to him. " Do 
 you believe I did this thing ? " she asked, 
 passionately. 
 
 He looked long into her eyes, and in his
 
 120 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 heart he believed in her, but on a sudden 
 impulse he felt himself harden, and his 
 face grew cold. 
 
 " Have you stated officially that your 
 score was five ? " 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 " Then there is nothing more to be 
 said ; one never questions a woman's 
 word." 
 
 She stood quite still a moment, then, 
 without a word, turned and walked away. 
 
 "What a brute I am!" he said, sav- 
 agely, as he watched her pass out of sight. 
 
 Lucy played the first three or four holes 
 in a dream. She drove, brasseyed, putted 
 mechanically, her game like some well- 
 ordered piece of mechanism going by it- 
 self for awhile, then, without warning, and 
 for no apparent reason, she went com- 
 pletely to pieces. May, suffering agonies, 
 saw her lose hole after hole. 
 
 "For heaven's sake, pull yourself to- 
 gether, my girl," whispered Mr. Biglow, 
 as they finished the seventeenth hole. 
 
 Lucy struggled, but at the eighteenth 
 Mrs. Connors was dormie five, and at the
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 121 
 
 nineteenth the match was hers, with a 
 score of six up and five to play. 
 
 As they shook hands, Mrs. Connors 
 looked Lucy over critically. 
 
 " I'm sorry you lost your nerve," she 
 said, in her queer, blunt way. " You didn't 
 play your game, you know. I'm afraid my 
 protest rattled you, although at first I 
 didn't think you were that sort. No hard 
 feelings, I hope," and, with a little bow, 
 she made her way back to the club- 
 house. 
 
 Lucy listened wearily to her friends' 
 lamentations. 
 
 " We counted on you," said the chair- 
 man of the committee, almost with tears 
 in his eyes. 
 
 That same evening they all went back 
 to Beverly. The Reverend Hugh was 
 wretched when he learned the result of 
 the match, a hundred times more 
 wretched than Lucy, who seemed too 
 tired to even feel. She remained in her 
 room all the next day. 
 
 " I must see her," he thought to him- 
 self. "Who would have dreamed that
 
 122 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 I could hurt her so. After I see her I 
 must go, for it would only be cross pur- 
 poses to the end of the chapter." To 
 Hugh's relief, Lucy appeared at dinner, 
 and as they rose from the table he joined 
 her. 
 
 "Will you give me a few moments, 
 Miss Middleton ? " he asked, hesitatingly. 
 "We might stroll up the road a little 
 way." 
 
 She assented listlessly. 
 
 Their way led inland, and before them 
 the road wound lazily, stretching out into 
 the dusk, distinct, yet indistinct. A 
 cloud floated across the wide horizon, and 
 the evening star gleamed faintly. 
 
 At last, with an effort, Hugh broke the 
 silence. 
 
 " I owe you an apology, Miss Middle- 
 ton, and I asked you to walk with me so 
 that I might tell you how bitterly I repent 
 the way in which I answered your ques- 
 tion yesterday. I can never forgive my- 
 self." 
 
 "You only acted according to your 
 lights," she said, wearily, after a little
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 123 
 
 pause. " You were logical, that was 
 all." 
 
 " But I did not doubt you," he said, 
 earnestly. "As I looked at you I be- 
 lieved in you absolutely." 
 
 "Then why why ?" she began. 
 
 " I don't know why," he interrupted. 
 
 She stopped, and leaned against an old 
 broken fence rail. 
 
 " For a long time," she began, at length, 
 " I have wanted to tell you that that 
 what I did the day we played together 
 seems like a nightmare. I feel as though 
 some morning I must wake, and find it 
 only a dream. My standards have not 
 been high, I know, but I had never been 
 guilty of such a thing in all my life before. 
 I seem to have waited until I found 
 you." 
 
 He started, then looked away. " I was 
 too hard on you," he said, " I should have 
 let it pass." 
 
 "No," she answered; "you were quite 
 right." 
 
 He made an impatient gesture of dis- 
 sent.
 
 124 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " You did not approve of me, did not 
 even admire me, and although at first I 
 hated you, I could not forget what you 
 said, and then I began to see my mistake, 
 - 1 began to see that that we might 
 have been good friends." 
 
 There was a long silence ; then she 
 looked up impulsively into his face. 
 
 " Is it too late ? " 
 
 "It is too late," he answered, coldly. 
 He looked at her as he spoke, and saw 
 her face grow pale. Then he bent and 
 kissed her, passionately, lingeringly. 
 
 She stood quite still for a moment, then 
 broke into wild sobbing. 
 
 "Forgive me," he said, huskily, "I for- 
 got myself. Don't be so sorry dear." 
 
 He took her hand, and held it in both 
 his own. 
 
 "Oh, I cannot bear it!" she cried, 
 struggling with her tears. 
 
 " I see how impossible it would be," he 
 went on, gently. " I am poor. I have 
 nothing to offer any girl but the devotion 
 of my life. A small thing in itself, per- 
 haps, but much to me. It would mean
 
 THE SECOND LESSON 12$ 
 
 very little to a woman of your world, liv- 
 ing and caring only for social excitement 
 or success. It would be cruel to change 
 a woman's whole life for a moment's weak- 
 ness, a passing mood. The risk would 
 be too great, the chances of unhappiness 
 too awful." 
 
 " But if it were no mood," she said in 
 a low voice, " if it were the truest feeling 
 that could touch a woman's heart ? " 
 
 Hugh sighed. 
 
 " She might believe it to be all that, 
 but it would only be a dream, and very 
 soon would come the awakening. There 
 would be so many sacrifices, the habits 
 of a whole lifetime to unlearn." 
 
 "You are very one-sided," she said, 
 bitterly, "very blind. The women of 
 what you call our world are not all shallow, 
 not all butterflies. Some of us get tired 
 of the whirl, the sham, the emptiness of it 
 all. Some of us might even be capable of 
 loving, for love's sake. Oh, I know," she 
 went on, as he started to speak, " I under- 
 stand what you would say, you have 
 your vocation, your life to live, and you
 
 126 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 must live it well. You are strong, but 
 j " 
 
 Her face was stained with tears, her 
 pride for ever humbled. She looked like 
 some poor wounded bird trailing its broken 
 wings through the dust. A great wave of 
 love and chivalry swept over him. He 
 moved quickly toward her and held out 
 his hands. 
 
 " Come ! " he said.
 
 ONE OFF TWO
 
 VI 
 
 ONE OFF TWO 
 
 THE heart of the clerk of the weather 
 was soft within him, and Saturday 
 afternoon was deliciously cool. The breeze 
 caught the broad water of the river and 
 crumpled it into a thousand little glittering 
 waves. The links stretched on and on 
 toward the horizon line, smooth, undulat- 
 ing, green, and soft as velvet. 
 
 Arnold and Peters were playing for the 
 biggest cup of the season, and, as they 
 were well matched, club opinion was pretty 
 evenly divided on the outcome. Old Gen- 
 eral Sanderson, who hated Arnold, was wait- 
 ing around to follow, and Jackie Thomas, 
 the happy-go-lucky of the club, who had 
 had a bicycle spill that morning, appeared 
 with his hand done up in many bandages, 
 129
 
 130 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and was working the old gentleman into a 
 frenzy by belittling Peters's chances. 
 
 "You see, Arnold is such a cool cus- 
 tomer," Jackie asserted, "and he's used to 
 competition. He never plays up to his 
 game until the odds are against him, then 
 look out for him ; that's all I have to say." 
 
 "That's all right," snapped the general, 
 testily, "but Peters plays the most bril- 
 liant game in this club. Arnold is unsteady. 
 Why, I beat him six down myself only the 
 other day." 
 
 " So I've heard before," said Jackie, with 
 a bored air. The General looked daggers 
 and retired. 
 
 " What's his grudge against Tom ? " 
 inquired a man who had been standing 
 near by. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know. Perhaps he's run 
 up against some of Tom's home truths. 
 They're not sugar-coated." 
 
 The men had taken an early luncheon, 
 and had almost a clear course. There 
 was a big gallery, with a large sprinkling 
 of girls in the crowd, making pretty high 
 lights in their white dresses and fluttering
 
 ONE OFF TWO 131 
 
 ribbons. Jackie was supposed to be scor- 
 ing, but he managed to carry on several 
 complicated flirtations, and seemed in his 
 element. 
 
 Both Arnold and Peters were on their 
 mettle, and Peters started brilliantly, win- 
 ning three straight holes. Arnold soon 
 got into his swing, and pulled the score 
 down to even all at the seventh hole. 
 Peters won the eighth, and the General, 
 who was very fat, began to get red and 
 fussy between the effects of heat and 
 excitement. 
 
 " One up," said Peters, looking at his 
 card, " and by Jove ! Tom, if you do this 
 hole in five, you'll go out in forty-three. 
 It's a good thing for me that this isn't 
 medal play, for that nine would have fixed 
 me." 
 
 " Forty-three," cried Arnold, stopping 
 in astonishment. " You must be mis- 
 taken. That's as good as I've ever done, 
 and I'm not up to my game." 
 
 " Here it is in black and white. The 
 first in five, the second in five, the third in 
 five, the fourth in three, the fifth in six,
 
 132 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 that's good for that hole, the sixth in four, 
 the seventh in four, the eighth in six, mak- 
 ing thirty-eight for eight holes, with two 
 sixes. Well, you may not think you're 
 up to your game, but it's good going." 
 
 " Here's two to one that he doesn't do 
 it in five," said the General, cheerfully. 
 
 " Done," said Jackie. 
 
 " What an old wretch that General is ! " 
 said pretty May Biglow, to a man saunter- 
 ing beside her. " He ought to be put off 
 the course." 
 
 " He wouldn't understand the reason if 
 they did put him off," said her companion, 
 with a smile. 
 
 Arnold's lips closed firmly. Jackie knew 
 that look, and felt placidly sure of his 
 balls. 
 
 It was Arnold's honour, and, standing 
 on the tee, he put down his ball, and took 
 a trial swing. Tall, broad-shouldered, 
 purposeful, he stood strongly silhouetted 
 against the sky. 
 
 " How attractive he looks," said May 
 Biglow. " I wonder if he's as interesting 
 as he seems, or only like all the rest."
 
 ONE OFF TWO 133 
 
 "Only like all the rest," answered her 
 companion, quietly. 
 
 Peters looked at Tom with an expression 
 of affection in his clear brown eyes. He 
 himself was playing for all he was worth, 
 but he was a man who could see something 
 outside of his game. He could enjoy the 
 trees and the sky, could be really very 
 companionable when he was making a 
 good score, and if, as sometimes hap- 
 pened, he played badly, he seemed to 
 wrap himself in a mantle of good-natured 
 philosophy. 
 
 " I wish I knew them better," sighed 
 a young married woman, impatiently, " but 
 they're so impregnable ! " 
 
 " They don't altogether appreciate 
 us," answered May Biglow, reflectively. 
 "They've both been through the mill." 
 
 Arnold drove a long ball and landed well 
 on the other* side of the road. Peters drove, 
 and pulled a little into the long grass, but 
 was well out with his mashie, and up on 
 the rise of the hill in two. Arnold took a 
 brassey, and put a good ball just this side 
 of the road. Peters made a beautiful iron,
 
 134 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and landed dead on the green. Arnold 
 playing the like, approached, but sclaffed, 
 and landed a trifle beyond the edge of the 
 green. It was his turn, playing the odd. 
 
 " You've won your balls, but it's Pete's 
 hole," said the General to Jackie, in an 
 audible voice, as Arnold studied his put. 
 
 Arnold looked at Peters and smiled. 
 " Here's for a try," and getting well down 
 to it, he putted for the hole. The ball 
 ran true, then, rimming the cup a little, it 
 gave a lurch and dropped in. 
 
 Peters holed out and they halved in 
 four. 
 
 The General slapped his knee and swore 
 softly. " It was pure robbery," he said, 
 disgustedly, thinking of his Silvertowns. 
 
 By this time both men were getting 
 well warmed up to their work. They 
 halved frequently, and, try as he would, 
 neither could get more than one up on 
 the other. Peters held Arnold well, and 
 played at times brilliantly, although Arnold 
 was steady and his score consistently low. 
 As they holed out on the seventeenth 
 green, the strain began to tell a little on
 
 ONE OFF TWO 135 
 
 the nerves of both men, as the card again 
 showed even all, and one to go. Quite 
 a number of men had heard of the close- 
 ness of the match from the caddies, and 
 were waiting to join the gallery at the 
 home tee. A group of people from the 
 club-house sauntered up to see the finish, 
 while two women hung eagerly over the 
 piazza railing of the little house on the 
 left. Aside from the General's voice, 
 which could be heard offering bets to the 
 newcomers, it was as silent as the grave. 
 
 " I wish they'd play golf more jocosely," 
 said a poor unenlightened duffer. 
 
 " Oh, keep quiet," said Jackie, glaring 
 at him savagely. 
 
 It was Peters's honour, and, with a 
 magnificent swing, he sent the ball well 
 away. The gallery, leaning forward, with 
 hands up to shade their eyes, thought that 
 it would never stop. Arnold teed his ball 
 with the do or die look Jackie knew so 
 well. Pulling his hat over his eyes, he 
 took a firm stance, and was just past 
 the top of his swing when a little flying 
 figure shot across the course directly in
 
 136 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 front of him, and stopping suddenly, cried, 
 in a childish treble : 
 
 " Helloo, Tom ! Bee's dot a flower for 
 'oo !" 
 
 Pale as death, Arnold wavered, then 
 swung to the left with all his strength, 
 and the ball, going with the force of a 
 bullet, crashed through the window of 
 the house on the left, and landed in the 
 centre of Mrs. Alden's cesthetic little 
 drawing-room. 
 
 There was a cry of horror from the 
 women in the gallery, and some made 
 an involuntary rush for Bee, who stood 
 at Arnold's feet, a quaint, small figure 
 in green, with the fatal flower in one 
 little hand. 
 
 The colour rushed suddenly back into 
 Arnold's face. He caught the child in 
 his arms, holding her closely, and kissed 
 her ; then, seeing her surprise and alarm 
 at his emotion, he put her quickly down, 
 and addressed her with quaint formality. 
 
 "Thank you very much, Honey Bee. 
 Your flower is very beautiful. As I have 
 no coat now, I'll put it in my hat. So
 
 ONE OFF TWO 137 
 
 suiting the action to the word, "and when 
 I go to dinner to-night, IT1 put it in my 
 buttonhole." 
 
 Bee continued to regard him gravely, 
 
 "Don't you think you'd better run back 
 to Nurse now?" suggested May Biglow, 
 and the little figure flew off obediently. 
 
 Arnold turned to Peters. 
 
 "The cup is yours, Pete. It was a good 
 match, and since Fate decreed that I should 
 lose, I'm glad it goes to you," and the two 
 men shook hands, looking hard into each 
 other's eyes. 
 
 "Beastly luck!" murmured Jackie, 
 mournfully. 
 
 "That was a dose 'call,'" said the 
 General, mopping his brow, and looking 
 a trifle subdued. "Who is the child, 
 anyway ? " 
 
 " Little Bee Pelham, a daughter of one 
 of his classmates. They are great chums, 
 and she has a funny little way of giving 
 him a flower every time she sees him." 
 
 "She came near giving him her last 
 one," said Peters. " I say, Arnold, don't 
 you think we'd better go over to the
 
 138 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 house and see how much damage we have 
 done ? " 
 
 "I'll go, too," said Jackie. "I think 
 I see a new girl with Mrs. Alden. By 
 Jove ! " he cried, as they drew nearer, 
 " if it isn't Helen Thornton herself ! " 
 
 ii 
 
 Mrs. Alden was still a handsome woman, 
 and looked a gracious figure as she rose 
 and moved forward to greet the newcomers. 
 Standing on the lower step of the veranda, 
 Arnold offered his humblest apologies, 
 while Jackie unceremoniously passed them 
 and joined Miss Thornton, who was seated 
 in the background. 
 
 " I hope you'll allow me to send a man 
 up at once," Tom was saying. " I can 
 never quite forgive my clumsiness, and 
 
 " I won't hear another word about it," 
 interrupted Mrs. Alden, " and as for your 
 sending a man, I will not allow it. I offer 
 my window quite cheerfully as a sacrifice 
 to the gods, since dear little Bee is safe. 
 How tired you all look ! Now that you're
 
 ONE OFF TWO 139 
 
 here, you must stay and have tea with 
 me." 
 
 The men suddenly became conscious 
 that their collars were reposing peacefully 
 in their lockers, while green stains and 
 brown smudges ornamented their once 
 white trowsers. Only Jackie was re- 
 splendent in dazzling ducks and immacu- 
 late stock, while the pattern of his shirt 
 might " have caused an echo," as the Gen- 
 eral put it. 
 
 " Really, Mrs. Alden," said Peters, with 
 a flush of embarrassment, "I'm afraid 
 we don't look very fit. If you'll excuse 
 us" 
 
 "But I won't excuse you. Don't you 
 suppose I've ever seen a man without his 
 collar before? Besides, you both neglect 
 me so atrociously that I may never be able 
 to catch you again. I want to introduce 
 you to my guest, Miss Thornton. Helen, 
 let me present Mr. Peters Mr. Arnold ; 
 Jackie, will you ring for tea ? " The men 
 made the best of the situation, and Arnold 
 sauntered over to where Miss Thornton 
 was sitting.
 
 140 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " I hear that you are a great golfer," he 
 said, seating himself. 
 
 " Oh, no," she answered, with a little 
 laugh, " only an aspiring one. I'm in love 
 with your links, but I can't play them. 
 Yet I wouldn't have them different for 
 anything in the world." 
 
 "All you want is good coaching," said 
 Jackie. "You'd better let me take you 
 over the course and show you how to play 
 each hole." 
 
 "But you can't use your hand," with a 
 mischievous look into his eyes, "and I 
 knotv you won't want to simply walk." 
 
 "Just watch me ! Haven't I faithfully 
 followed these two duffers all this lovely 
 afternoon, and what is my reward ? I'm 
 short two dozen balls and four dinners, 
 and this is only the fifteenth ! My man 
 beaten ! my bets lost ! " 
 
 Meanwhile tea had arrived, and Arnold, 
 leaning back, looked at Miss Thornton 
 with interest. She had a sweet, low voice 
 and a subtle charm of changing expression, 
 and Jackie hung on her every word. Her 
 Northern fairness and marked Southern
 
 ONE OFF TWO 141 
 
 accent gave a delightfully piquant sense 
 of contrast. 
 
 " Have you heard of Sally Adams's en- 
 gagement?" said Mrs. Alden ; "it's the 
 sensation of the hour." 
 
 "Yes, that was a rapid thing," laughed 
 Peters, helping himself to tea-cakes ; " they 
 met each other just about six weeks ago. 
 Love at first sight, they both say." 
 
 " What folly ! " exclaimed Arnold, impa- 
 tiently. " What can she know of him, or 
 he of her, in six weeks ? " 
 
 " You evidently don't believe in love at 
 first sight," remarked Mrs. Alden, looking 
 at him curiously. " What do you believe 
 in ? " 
 
 " He doesn't believe in anything," inter- 
 rupted Jackie. " He's a regular pagan. 
 He isn't human, really, Mrs. Alden." 
 
 " Be quiet, Jackie, I want to hear what 
 Mr. Arnold really does think. He looked 
 rather communicative for half a minute." 
 
 "I think," began Arnold, slowly, "that 
 I haven't much faith in the soul-consum- 
 ing passion people talk about. No real 
 feeling can last unless there is some solid
 
 142 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 foundation for it to rest upon, and I 
 couldn't get to the foundation in six weeks. 
 At least, I hope not ! " 
 
 "Hear the baby talk," said Peters. 
 " You'd never think he'd lived thirty-three 
 years in this mocking old world. Why, 
 man, love can exist where there is nothing 
 to the eye of the sane human being, 
 neither beauty nor cleverness, nor anything 
 else, while sometimes the most ideal char- 
 acters go through life without inspiring it. 
 Love is like life, you can't explain one 
 or the other, can you, Jackie ?" 
 
 " What you say may be true, but, never- 
 theless, I still cling to my theory ; though 
 I may be speaking from too personal a 
 standpoint. What do you think ? " and 
 Arnold turned suddenly to Miss Thornton. 
 
 " I ? Oh, I think love is a flame ! " 
 
 "You bet it is," said Jackie, "several 
 flames. They just burn till there's noth- 
 ing left of you. I know," with an adoring 
 look at Miss Thornton. 
 
 Every one laughed and the men rose 
 to go. 
 
 " We shall hope to see something of
 
 ONE OFF TWO 143 
 
 you, now that Miss Thornton is here," 
 said Mrs. Alden. " I don't include you," 
 turning to Jackie, " because I'm sure you'll 
 live here anyway, no matter what I say. 
 Do go, you foolish boy," as Jackie auda- 
 ciously stooped and kissed her. " I'm too 
 old to be hoodwinked by sugar-plums." 
 
 in 
 
 About a month later Arnold suddenly 
 became conscious that he was seeing a 
 great deal of the Aldens, and inciden- 
 tally of Miss Thornton. They had spent 
 days on the links together and hours out 
 on the river. He wondered if his in- 
 timacy there was due to clever manage- 
 ment on Mrs. Alden' s part, or to his own 
 inclinations. He reflected that he had 
 never been managed into going where he 
 did not wish to go before, so he came to 
 the conclusion that, if Mrs. Alden had 
 offered opportunities, he, on his part, had 
 been willing enough to make use of them. 
 He knew that all the women in the club 
 were in ecstasies over what they called
 
 144 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 his sudden capture. They even forgave 
 " Her" for being pretty and not of them. 
 He wondered vaguely if he had come so 
 quickly to that place where he must de- 
 cide once for all whether to go forward or 
 backward. He thought he was not able 
 to decide either one way or the other. 
 He was sitting alone on the club piazza, 
 in the late afternoon sunshine, his chair 
 tipped back, his feet on the railing, and 
 his hat down over his eyes. From where 
 he sat the links stretched away in a long 
 light-flooded vista, the few little clouds in 
 the west turned slowly to gleaming gold, 
 and he could hear the gentle lapping of 
 the water against the rocks. He did not 
 know quite how long he had been sitting 
 there, when Jackie appeared, and promptly 
 proceeded to break in upon his solitude. 
 They talked aimlessly for a few minutes, 
 while Jackie seemed deeply interested in 
 the wild hurryings of a little ant on the 
 table between them. Suddenly he threw 
 away the end of his cigar, and studied 
 Arnold's face long and earnestly. 
 
 " Tom," he said, at length, " I want to
 
 ONE OFF TWO 145 
 
 have a little talk with you. You know 
 what I think of you, old man, how I've 
 always believed you to be the best type 
 our place ever turns out. It's the same 
 way with all younger fellows, so you 
 mustn't take what I have to say wrongly." 
 
 " Go on, Jackie, I know your sort." 
 
 " You remember the night I dropped in 
 to see you and Pete, and told you about 
 Helen Thornton ? " 
 
 Tom nodded. 
 
 " I said then that she could have me. 
 She can now, bless her ! I love her with 
 all my heart. God knows I have no false 
 pride, and I'd ask her to marry me to- 
 morrow if I had a roof and crust of bread 
 to offer her, but I haven't. I would do 
 her a great injustice if I didn't believe 
 that she'd share the roof and the crust 
 with me, if she loved me, but she doesn't. 
 I didn't have to ask her to find out." 
 Jackie's face looked pale, but very strong 
 and sweet. He continued : 
 
 " You ought to be able to win the love 
 of almost any woman, Tom, and you're 
 worthy of the very best she has to give
 
 146 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 you in return. You haven't frittered 
 away your heart in a thousand flirtations 
 and unholy loves, but you've kept it clean 
 and pure, waiting for the coming of the one 
 woman in the world. She's come, Tom. 
 You're out of focus over that confounded 
 theory of love being a growth, and all that 
 trash, and you don't recognise the blessed 
 thing now it's come to you ; but I do, and 
 I tell you you love Helen Thornton now. 
 I am not blind, though you are. I don't 
 know whether she'll say yes or no. You 
 and I are not the only moths around the 
 candle, but you owe it to something in 
 your own soul to ask her, no matter what 
 her answer may be. You want her, go 
 and win her, while you can." 
 
 There was a long pause, then Arnold 
 rose. "Thank you, Jackie," he said, sim- 
 ply, and turning aside he went out into 
 the glory of the sunset. 
 
 IV 
 
 The next evening two figures came 
 slowly toward the green of the fifteenth
 
 ONE OFF TWO 
 
 hole. Had they looked, they could have 
 seen the silver thread of the river winding 
 along for miles. All distinct outlines were 
 lost in the deepening dusk, while here and 
 there, from the quiet little village, a light 
 gleamed out like a star. 
 
 They had sent their caddies back to the 
 club-house, believing it too dark to finish, 
 although Helen Thornton was studying the 
 line of her put intently, and Arnold stood 
 quietly watching her. She was conscious 
 of a decided change in him, and, woman- 
 like, would almost have put away from her 
 that for which she most longed. At last 
 she looked up, with an appealing little 
 expression in her beautiful gray eyes. 
 
 " I'm so stupid, I've forgotten the 
 score," she said, breathlessly, while Arnold, 
 catching both her hands in his, drew her 
 gently to him. 
 
 " Bother the score," he said, recklessly, 
 " or rather, let's call it one off two ! "
 
 DOING SOMETHING FOR 
 HIS COLLEGE
 
 VII 
 
 DOING SOMETHING FOR HIS 
 COLLEGE 
 
 A STRONG athletic figure on crutches 
 stumped doggedly along the road 
 toward the Yale field. Groups of students 
 in a steady stream passed by, some with a 
 word or jest, others with the supreme in- 
 difference of "upper classmen." Fred 
 Walters was going out to see the 'Varsity 
 practice for the first time since he had 
 made a touchdown for the college side, 
 and had been picked up with a dislocated 
 knee which he knew now would prevent 
 his playing for a season at least. It was 
 a bitter blow, as his rather unusual com- 
 bination of strength and great agility had 
 made him an almost certain candidate for 
 the position of half-back. He had been
 
 152 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 captain of his school eleven, and thought 
 he could play football, but he did not know 
 that his docility under hard coaching had 
 brought him to the favourable notice of 
 every veteran on the field. 
 
 Practice had already begun when he 
 arrived, and the steam from twenty-two 
 perspiring young bodies was clearly visible 
 in the keen, crisp autumn air. 
 
 "Tackle low!" rang out the bell-like 
 voice of the coach, as a half-back on the 
 college side made a pretty run around the 
 end, aided by some clever interference. 
 He was pretty well toward the goal when 
 Summers, the full-back, met him with a 
 rush, and they went down together. 
 
 Walters followed each play breathlessly. 
 Things were going with a vim, as the team 
 was sifting down to its final make-up. 
 When time was called, Morton, the famous 
 ex-captain, noticed the tall, crippled figure, 
 and the despairing eyes that followed the 
 team as they walked off. 
 
 " Poor devil ! " he murmured to himself. 
 " There's a heartbroken boy, if ever there 
 was one."
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 153 
 
 " Knee gone back on you ? " he asked, 
 sauntering up to him. 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Walters, flushing 
 with surprise and pleasure. " I'm afraid 
 I'm useless for the rest of the term, any- 
 way." 
 
 " Tough luck ! " said the ex-captain. 
 "Better try for the nine in the spring." 
 
 All that winter Walters nursed his 
 knee assiduously. With the first break 
 in the weather he was out getting into 
 shape, and his spirits grew high as his 
 knee behaved pretty well on long runs, 
 and in the gymnasium ; but when the nine 
 went out for its first practice game, he 
 wrenched it sliding for base. 
 
 " Good-bye to my last chance to try for 
 a white Y," he thought, as they carried 
 him off the field, and the world looked 
 very black. 
 
 He was a severe trial to his family that 
 summer. He would do nothing and go 
 nowhere, but sat on the piazza and moped, 
 or read until he could not see. He used 
 to jeer at his brother Burk, who had 
 been a famous sprinter and had always held
 
 154 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 Fred's highest respect, because Burk 
 had taken up golf. Fred had conde- 
 scended once or twice to walk over the 
 course, and had exasperated Burk almost 
 beyond endurance. 
 
 " Why, the game is only fit for women, 
 and duffers with one foot in the grave," 
 Fred had remarked, scornfully. 
 
 " You'd better wait till you know some- 
 thing about it before you give an opinion," 
 replied Burk, sharply. " The trouble with 
 you is, that you're so crabbed and self- 
 centred you can't see an inch before 
 your nose. If you had any sense, you'd 
 take up the game and see what you could 
 do with it, instead of jeering at your 
 betters. Football and baseball are pretty 
 fine, and you had beastly tough luck, I'll 
 admit, but you have to take what comes 
 your way in this world and not sit crying 
 for the moon like a baby. You'd better 
 think if you can't do something for your 
 college." 
 
 Fred turned this advice over in his 
 mind. Here was the candid opinion of 
 a man who was one of Yale's best known
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 155 
 
 athletes, and even if he did happen to be 
 his brother, it was not to be despised. 
 So, more as a task than as a pleasure, he 
 decided to go in for golf. With the bland 
 disregard for " meum and tuum " that col- 
 legians seem to possess, he took posses- 
 sion of Burk's clubs, and helped himself 
 to some old balls which "had been set 
 aside to be remade. 
 
 Pretty Miss Richardson came upon him 
 one morning with his trousers rolled up as 
 far as they would go, his cap on the back 
 of his head, and in his hand a crab net. 
 He was standing knee-deep in the pond 
 of the third hole, and all about him, like 
 apples in a tub at " Hallowe'en," were 
 little bobbing balls. He looked irresistibly 
 funny, and his earnest expression, as he 
 bent down and tried to land some refrac- 
 tory little piece of gutta percha, was too 
 much for Miss Richardson's gravity. 
 
 " Remades float, 
 Like Ivory Soap," 
 
 she chanted as soon as she could speak. 
 " You seem to have put a good many in
 
 156 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 there, not counting those that have retired 
 to the bottom. Since when has your high- 
 ness taken up the Ancient and Royal ? I 
 thought you were a confirmed scoffer." 
 
 " So I was until Burk read me a moral 
 lecture. This is the result." 
 
 " Have you had any instruction ? " in- 
 quired Miss Richardson. 
 
 " Oh, no, I have only fooled around a 
 little by myself." 
 
 "That is a great mistake," she said, 
 quickly, "because in two or three days 
 one can get into bad habits that may take 
 months to correct. We have a splendid 
 professional here, his irons are really 
 wonderful ; why don't you get hold of 
 him, and take some lessons ? " 
 
 " I think I will," he answered, with 
 more animation than he had shown for 
 weeks. 
 
 After Miss Richardson's departure he 
 gathered up his balls, and, restoring his 
 trousers to their normal position, went 
 back to the caddy-house. Burnie was 
 getting some remades for a very pretty 
 girl whom Walters did not know.
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 157 
 
 " I've come to see if you have time to 
 take me in hand," said Walters, as she 
 walked away. 
 
 " Mayhap a'll have a stray oour noo 
 an' agen," said Burnie, looking him over 
 keenly. "Ye 'ill hae played a bit, a'm 
 thinkin' ? " 
 
 " No I'm a duffer pure and simple." 
 
 " Ah, weel, we'll try wha we can do wie 
 ye. There's na tellin' till ye try. There's 
 Mister Wallace, a vera proper gentleman, 
 all his best efforts went into the ' cassams,' 
 and he would na play wie aught but an 
 iron i' spite o' all a' could say. Then he 
 went awa ter Willie Manis, who said the 
 same as a' did, and bought twa wooden 
 clubs, fer ye see Mister Wallace is ane o 
 these hard-headen business gentlemen, an' 
 he said, 'When twa professionals agree 
 tergether there must be somethin' in it.' " 
 
 " I hear you are considered one of the 
 best iron players in this country," said 
 Fred, sitting down on the doorstep and 
 lighting his pipe. 
 
 "Aye, a' should na wonder," replied 
 Burnie, complacently, " a'm a vera val-u-
 
 158 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 able mon, Mister Walters, as mony can 
 testify, an' a'm thinkin' that the gentlemen 
 o' this club are commencin' ter appreciate 
 that a'm conscientious, an' a hard wurker. 
 They could na hae a better mon ; na, na, 
 they could na, fer a' understand ma busi- 
 ness an' what is proper fer ma position. 
 Ye 'ill see professionals frae the old 
 countree, a' mind there's Willie Manis 
 and Jock McCrae, they could na keep 
 their silly heads ter their duties, but went 
 gallivantin' aboot wie boats an' ither fool- 
 ishness. Wie me, ye 'ill hear it's different. 
 There's na word exceptin' praise. There 
 could na be," he added, positively. 
 
 Walters was so taken aback at this 
 wonderful eulogy that he looked around 
 to see what manner of man Burnie was. 
 Little and stocky, he might have been any 
 age from thirty to fifty. He never wore 
 anything but a shapeless old tweed suit, 
 once brown, but now a gray green, which 
 he was proud of saying " had served him 
 fer mony a year, an' would serve him fer 
 as mony mair." He had an ugly weather- 
 beaten face, with sandy hair, but there
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 159 
 
 was something beneath his ugliness and 
 conceit which made one believe in and like 
 him. 
 
 " Have you an hour to spare -now ? " 
 asked Walters, as he put up his pipe. 
 Burnie said he had, and the two started 
 out together. 
 
 All Walters' s experience in athletics had 
 tended toward the valuation of great physi- 
 cal strength and force, so his ideas on golf 
 ran to the heaviest clubs, and the longest 
 swing. Taking the driver in his powerful 
 hands, he whirled it around his head until 
 it seemed as though the slender shaft must 
 break. When he hit the ball, after a few 
 attempts, it went singing through the air 
 with the force of a bullet. 
 
 "Aye, aye, but ye put pooer into 't," 
 said Burnie, somewhat impressed in spite 
 of himself. "That's na the way, laddie. 
 Yer a fine figure of a mon, and ye've mony 
 a pound ter yir credit, but ye maun na 
 expect ter expend yir pooer upon a bit 
 golf ball. 'Tis the directness wie which 
 the club hits the ball that tells." 
 
 " But I don't see how one can get dis-
 
 160 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 tance without force," said Walters, uncon- 
 vinced. 
 
 " Lord's sake, mon, ye get yir distance 
 wie the wrists and wie the follow through. 
 A long swing is a vera gude thing, an' so 
 is pooer, but there's mair to it than that. 
 Try aince agen, an' dinna swing sa madly." 
 
 Walters did so, and got a moderately 
 long ball perfectly straight. He was not 
 satisfied to follow Burnie's advice, how- 
 ever, and began hitting hard. He gained 
 great distance, but either pulled or sliced 
 badly. 
 
 " A' see it a' noo," said Burnie, who had 
 watched him in silence. " Ye've got the 
 long drivin' bee in yir bonnet, an' it 'ill 
 stay there in spite o' aw a' can say, till ye 
 learn yir ain lesson ; but, look ye, yir 
 balls were a' either hooked, or swithered, 
 an' if ye were playin' in a ma'ch, ye'd find 
 that tho' ye were hole high on yir second 
 shot, an' yir opponent playin' the odd, 
 when it came ter holen oot on the green, 
 ye'd be playin' the like instead o' one off 
 two. Tis the straight ball that counts in 
 the end, laddie, an' the sooner ye learn ter
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE l6l 
 
 believe what a' say, the sooner I'll make a 
 golfer o' ye, f er a'm thinkin' ye gie a bit 
 promise i' spite o' yir obstinate conclu- 
 sions. A' dinna say so positively, mind 
 ye, but if ye put yirsel' in ma hand, an' 
 refrain frae too mony idees o' yir ain, 
 aweel, I'll make nae promises. Ye'll be 
 wantin' some clubs, a'm thinkin' ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Walters, " these are 
 only a borrowed set of my brother's. This 
 is a beautiful driver of yours, Burnie." 
 
 " Aye, ye may weel say that ! " he an- 
 swered, proudly, "fer a' made every part 
 o' it wie ma ain hand, and a'm only just 
 to ma'sel' when a' say that there's na 
 better hand in a' the countree-side. 
 There's Mr. Samson, a vera proper 
 gentleman, an' a good jedge o' merit, he 
 saed ter me, ' Burnie, yir clubs are o' tha 
 vera best ; there's nane better, an' a' want 
 an ither brassey and twa drivers o' the 
 same pattern.' That's what a' call a vera 
 discernin' gentleman, Mister Walters." 
 
 "You must make quite some money," 
 said Fred, as they sauntered toward the 
 caddy-house.
 
 1 62 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 "A'm makin' a wie bit," answered 
 Burnie. " Aye, just a wie bit, an' a'm 
 thinkin' it's only what a' deserve. A' was 
 able ter send a matter o' fifty pounds ter 
 ma brother awa' in Scotlan'. A' tho't 'twas 
 better than writin' affectionate letters. 
 He's annither splendid mon, is ma brother. 
 Just like masel', an' vera steady. 'Tis 
 once a month he goes ter th' Edinboro 
 teerter an' passes a fine night." 
 
 " And you, don't you ever go ? " 
 
 " 'Tis vera seldom a'm leavin', a'm mair 
 content i' the open," he answered, looking 
 around at the wide horizon line. 
 
 When they reached the caddy-house, 
 Walters selected three irons, a heavy 
 cleek, a mid-iron, and a light Morris lofter, 
 but had some difficulty in getting his 
 wooden clubs. After much weighing and 
 balancing, Burnie finally chose him a 
 rather light brassey well laid back, and 
 with very little spring in the shaft. When 
 it came to the driver, Fred had an idea of 
 his own. 
 
 "This is a pretty nice club," said he, 
 taking up the one he had been using.
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 163 
 
 " There's nae better," answered Burnie. 
 
 " Why won't you sell me this one ? I got 
 on rather decently with it this afternoon." 
 
 Burnie tipped his cap back, and scratched 
 his head meditatively. "Aye, 'tis a fine 
 one, an' suits ye fairly," he murmured 
 half aloud. He took it out of Walters's 
 hand, and went over it inch by inch. 
 
 "A' made it a' wie ma own hand, an' 
 'tis masel' that used it." Then he glanced 
 up quickly and handed Fred the club. 
 
 " A'll gie it to ye, a'll gie it to ye," he 
 said, turning resolutely away. 
 
 "Oh, no!" cried Walters, greatly em- 
 barrassed. "Let me buy it, if you are 
 willing to let me have it at all. I'm more 
 than anxious to have the club, but if you 
 won't let me pay for it, then I can't accept 
 it." 
 
 " Na, na, a'll gie it to ye ! " said Burnie, 
 with desperate decision, although his eye 
 lingered on it lovingly. " It's no fer me 
 to be praisin' masel', but ye'll see, Mr. 
 Walters, that a'm a vera just mon, an' 
 content wie a reasonable profit. Ye'll be 
 wanting mony a club frae me, a'm thinkin',
 
 164 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 an a'd like yer trade. Na, a'll gie it to ye, 
 a'll gie it to ye," and " gie it to him " he 
 did. 
 
 By the end of the summer Walters had 
 developed a very fair game, although 
 hampered in his progress by his desire 
 to gain unusual distance. He went back 
 to college with the firm intention of get- 
 ting on the team if it was a possible thing, 
 and if he failed, to keep on trying until he 
 succeeded. All during that winter he 
 could be seen in a quiet corner of the 
 gymnasium swinging steadily, for an hour 
 at a time ; then, with an old door-mat for 
 a green, he pitched balls from varying dis- 
 tances until he became positively deadly 
 in his accuracy. No one paid very much 
 attention to him except to smile, and put 
 him down as a golf crank. In the spring 
 he was out early, with high hopes, but 
 soon became dreadfully discouraged, as his 
 balls were all badly pulled or sliced, and he 
 had lost even his distance. Nothing seemed 
 to result from his long winter's practice but 
 an approach shot which nine times out of 
 ten ran up dead to the hole. As the local
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 165 
 
 club tournament approached, his spirits 
 sank lower and lower. All the college 
 cracks were entered, and the result car- 
 ried considerable weight in the first selec- 
 tions for the team. 
 
 On the opening day he had the bad 
 luck to draw Newcome, the Yale captain. 
 Newcome was rather put out about it, and 
 was overheard to remark that he had hoped 
 to "get a good match and try for a record, 
 but had caught a duffer." This did not 
 improve Walters's frame of mind, and his 
 start was worse even than he had antici- 
 pated. He topped, pulled, sliced, and 
 pressed so badly that, after regarding him 
 with astonishment for a hole or two, New- 
 come ceased to consider him, and played 
 his own game. 
 
 At the end of the first nine, Walters 
 had given up all hope ; then, for no ap- 
 parent reason, he steadied down, and to 
 the astonishment of every one, including 
 himself, he came in so well that when the 
 scores were posted he was the last to 
 qualify. 
 
 " By Jove, I wouldn't have thought it
 
 1 66 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 possible ! " said Newcome, as they all 
 stood around the board together, " and I 
 don't see quite yet how it happened." 
 
 " Neither do I," replied Walters, " but 
 
 it won't make much difference in the end, 
 
 it's only one more day of agony for 
 
 me, and a dead sure thing for the other 
 
 fellow." 
 
 But to his surprise he won his first 
 match, although only after a very close 
 call. This gave him a certain measure of 
 confidence, and his game came with a 
 rush ; steadily, surely, and sometimes 
 brilliantly he won his way, until he and 
 Newcome were left face to face in the 
 finals. 
 
 " You diaphanous stuff," said Newcome, 
 giving him a friendly clip on the shoul- 
 der, " I like your impertinence ! " 
 
 The two men had quite a gallery as 
 they started out, and Walters gave New- 
 come the game of his life. They halved 
 hole after hole, Walters playing for a place 
 on the team, Newcome defending his title 
 of champion, so every hole was a battle. 
 It was only after winning two straight,
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 167 
 
 and halving the match on the eighteenth, 
 that Walters wavered, and on the nine- 
 teenth sliced so badly that the match 
 went to Newcome by one up. 
 
 " By Jove ! but he was hard to beat," 
 said Newcome, mopping his brow and 
 taking his clubs from Peterson, " and who 
 would have thought it, after the exhibition 
 he made of himself on the first day ! Golf 
 is a wonderful mystery, that's all there is 
 about it." 
 
 A few weeks later Walters found him- 
 self ranked fourth on the team, and dur- 
 ing all the practice games at the different 
 clubs he usually managed to hold his 
 man. He soon began to be considered 
 pretty steady, and a hard man to down, so 
 at the Intercollegiates, Newcome decided 
 to play him third. When the eventful 
 occasion arrived, the first person Walters 
 saw as he was preparing to start on a 
 practice round was Burnie. 
 
 " Ye see, a' could na be sa near an' not 
 cume ter see ye," he said, in response to 
 Walters's astonishment. " A' was in New 
 York fer a matter o' three days expendin'
 
 1 68 DJtll'ES AA'D PUTS 
 
 a lot o' money. Aye ! a'm takin* a hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars' worth o' stuff back 
 wie me. Ye see a' believe in havin' the 
 best o' whatever ony gentleman is like ter 
 ask fer, then yir satisfied yirseTs, an' a* 
 get ma bit profit cheerful-like. A' want ter 
 gie ye a word o' advice," he added. " Ye've 
 done vera weel, an' a'm fair prood o" ye, 
 but ye can do better, there's nae doot 
 aboot it Dinna furget that 'tis mair 
 satisfyin' ter halve the hole than to lose 
 it, an if ye hae th* advantage o' ain or two 
 up, dinna press tha match ter hae it sune 
 ower wie. There's mair loss than gain i' 
 that, a'll tell ye. There's Harrie Var- 
 don " 
 
 "All right," hastily interrupted Wal- 
 ters, who had heard of " Harrie Yardon " 
 before, " I'll remember what you say," 
 and, finding his man, succeeded in making 
 his escape. 
 
 As it happened, Harvard beat Prince- 
 ton, and Yale beat Columbia on the first 
 day of team-play, leaving the two old 
 rivals to fight it out together. They all 
 got an early start, but before half the men
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE 169 
 
 had driven off the rain came down in 
 sheets. Every one's spirits seemed to 
 take on the colour of the sky, until, later 
 on in the day, it was seen that the match 
 would be a very dose one. The Harvard 
 and Yale captains were the last to arrive, 
 and it was discovered that their score 
 made the championship a tie. Then every 
 one began to talk at once, and the Com- 
 mittee went into immediate session, to 
 decide how the tie should be played off. 
 After much bandying of words, and some 
 heated discussion, it was arranged to take 
 an extra day, and play eighteen holes the 
 following morning, the men to be paired 
 as before. 
 
 The strain was beginning to tell on 
 Walters's nerves, and he went out about 
 nine o'clock to drive a few practice balls. 
 They were going off superbly when he 
 came down too straight on the ball, 
 and, hitting the ground, split the head of 
 his club in two. Fortunately, he had 
 brought a duplicate head of Burnie's with 
 him, and the two went over to the 
 caddy-house together to have it put on
 
 I/O DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 properly. This took some little time, so 
 Walters and Merriman of Harvard were 
 the last to start. Walters did very poorly 
 for the first two or three holes, and Merri- 
 man got a dangerous lead. Then getting 
 on to the balance of his new club, Fred 
 began to pick up, gradually gaining upon 
 his opponent, until at the eighteenth tee 
 they stood even all. Both got away good 
 drives, and both used brasseys for their 
 second shot. Walking slowly over the 
 brow of the hill, they saw an immense 
 crowd around the home green. From 
 where they stood, the red coats massed 
 together shone out like great flowers 
 against the blue gray of the river. There 
 was such a distinct air of stir and ex- 
 pectancy about the gallery that the 
 two men looked at each other apprehen- 
 sively. 
 
 " Do you think it rests with us ? " asked 
 Merriman, turning a shade paler. 
 
 Walters couldn't speak, he nodded 
 and walked over to his ball. It caught 
 the roll of the hill and ran across the 
 green about twelve feet beyond the hole.
 
 SOMETHING FOR HIS COLLEGE I /I 
 
 Merriman, who had gained considerably 
 more than Walters on his second shot, 
 made a superb approach, and landed about 
 five feet from the hole. 
 
 The ground seemed to give way under 
 Walters's feet as he walked toward the 
 green. He caught sight of Newcome's 
 agonised face, and his heart beat almost 
 to suffocation. He bent mechanically, 
 and brushed aside a leaf with the back 
 of his hand. 
 
 He knelt to get his direction. " Oh 
 make it ! " hoarsely whispered a voice 
 very near him, that he recognised as his 
 brother's. 
 
 Then he took a deep breath and felt his 
 hands grow steady and his nerves like 
 steel. After careful study he made his 
 put, and the ball shot forward straight as 
 a die, then, rimming the cup a little, 
 wavered and blundered in. 
 
 The gallery broke into a sudden burst 
 of applause, which was instantly stilled. 
 But it was too late, the strain, and Wal- 
 ters discouragingly long put, after his own 
 beautiful approach, was too much for Mer-
 
 1/2 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 riman, and he missed for a halve, the 
 championship going to Yale. 
 
 " A' told ye hoo it would be," rang out 
 Burnie's voice above all the others, as the 
 team went into the dressing-room. " A' 
 was just countin' on his doin' it, fer a'm 
 no praisin' ma sel' too highly when a' say 
 there's nae a professional i' tha land wha' 
 could 'a' made a golfer o' Mister Walters i' 
 tha same time. There's Harrie Vardon " 
 
 " Oh, drop Harrie Vardon and come in 
 and celebrate," said Burk, who was wild 
 with joy, and was going to fill the cup. 
 
 " Here's to the man who did it, fellows," 
 said Newcome a little later, throwing one 
 arm across Walters's shoulder, and with 
 the other lifting the brimming trophy high 
 in the air.
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN
 
 VIII 
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN 
 
 " T T ERE comes a sport," said Gray to 
 1 J. a group of men seated around a 
 table in the club cafe> " and not only a 
 sport, but a sportsman, there's a distinc- 
 tion and a difference, you know." 
 
 "Who is he?" asked Rollins, looking 
 up with interest. 
 
 " Henderson, of Compressed Cotton 
 fame." 
 
 " Indeed ! " exclaimed Rollins. " I've 
 often wanted to see him. He must be very 
 wealthy " 
 
 " Wealthy ! Well, I should say so. Com- 
 ing to think of it, he's one of the few 
 wealthy Southerners that have ever come 
 my way. It doesn't seem to spoil them 
 apparently, that is, if he's a fair sample."
 
 176 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Good evenin', gentlemen," said the 
 newcomer, bowing to the group in general 
 with an old-world courtesy that somehow 
 suggested the faint odour of dried rose 
 leaves. " May I have the pleasure of 
 joinin' you ? " 
 
 They greeted him cordially, and made 
 room for him at their little round table. 
 
 " Don't say I'm too late to offer you all 
 a mint julep," he remarked, ringing the 
 bell. " I can't say that it will be like the 
 ones Cousin Lee Pickins gives us in old 
 Kentucky. I tell you, gentlemen, there's 
 a bed of mint under the dining-room win- 
 dow of my old home out there that haunts 
 me in my dreams. By the way," he added, 
 turning to Gray, " I'd like to play a match 
 with you, sir, suit yourself about time, 
 I'm up here for a day or so for some 
 good solid golf." 
 
 " I shall be delighted," answered Gray. 
 " Let me see I think I could get away 
 Thursday, and perhaps get the 3.35. How 
 shall we play ? " 
 
 "You'd better believe we'll play even, 
 sir. My game is coming along. Shall we
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN 177 
 
 play a ball a hole, and a box of balls on the 
 match ? " 
 
 Gray looked a little uncomfortable. He 
 knew he was one of the best players in the 
 club, and knew also that Henderson had 
 not been very long at the game. 
 
 " I'll tell you what we'll do," he said, 
 after a moment's hesitation. " We'll limit 
 the stakes to four remades. We do that 
 quite a little here." 
 
 " Remades ? What are remades ? " 
 
 The four men at the table looked at each 
 other with raised eyebrows. 
 
 " Why, a remade is a ball that has been 
 used once or twice, and is then remoulded 
 and repainted. If the work is well done, 
 it's not half bad for practice." 
 
 " I never heard of them," he answered, 
 quite sincerely. " What did you say about 
 four balls ? "" 
 
 " Only that instead of playing for a ball 
 a hole, we might play for four on the 
 match." 
 
 " That means, if I win six holes, I only 
 get four balls. No, sir, I'm no great 
 golfer, but I'll play you for a ball a hole,
 
 1/8 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and a dozen on the match, and I'm not 
 afraid of being beaten, either." 
 
 "Very well; I'm willing," said Gray, 
 with a laugh. 
 
 " Hello, Wheeler ! How do you like the 
 course ? " said Rollins to a rather stout, 
 middle-aged man who sauntered up to the 
 table. 
 
 " I don't like it at all," he answered, 
 sharply. " In fact, I think it's the poorest 
 I've ever seen." 
 
 " What is the matter with it ? " demanded 
 Gray, rather resentfully. 
 
 "Why, it is nothing but hills, bunkers, 
 and ravines ; it's ridiculous." 
 
 " One must have some bunkers," replied 
 Rollins. 
 
 " Some, yes ; but yours are so badly 
 placed. They're sure to catch the average 
 drive." 
 
 "I know what is the matter with you, 
 Colonel Wheeler. You always want to 
 play score," said Gray. "You medal-play 
 sharps look upon every bunker as an enemy. 
 You would shorten the course, make the 
 fair-green a lawn, and the putting-green
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN 1/9 
 
 a billiard-table ; have everything flat, never 
 a hanging lie. You would fill up all ra- 
 vines and lift out of every road, and, if 
 you were not ashamed, you'd suggest a 
 place lie for every shot ; and for what ? 
 A few miserable points more or less." 
 
 " What a tirade," said Rollins, enjoying 
 Wheeler's expression immensely. 
 
 " You score fiends," went on Gray, now 
 thoroughly aroused, " never get anywhere. 
 Why ? Because you never take the time 
 to learn, or practise. It's too expensive. 
 Experiments make you lose strokes, so you 
 never make them, and, consequently, never 
 improve. By and by you lose even the 
 poor thing you called your game, and then 
 comes the crucial test ; for if you are not 
 really strong-minded, if you care only to 
 win the match of ^he hour, you will end 
 by giving up the game altogether, for you 
 haven't the courage to go back to first prin- 
 ciples. Perhaps one man in ten has the 
 sand to make himself over again after an 
 experience of this kind, and what is the 
 result ? A new lease of life for his game, 
 and the knowledge of a few other impor-
 
 180 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 tant things beside. Our courses over here 
 are only just beginning to be good, because 
 we are all only just beginning to under- 
 stand that a topped drive deserves to be 
 penalised, and that the fairest test of 
 golf, in the end, is a long playing dis- 
 tance." 
 
 " Hear ! hear ! " said an Englishman 
 who had been quietly listening. " You 
 are all only beginners, anyway, and some 
 of your ideas seem odd to an old-timer like 
 myself, but you are learning fast, and you 
 are going to be great dabs at the game. 
 It's one of your characteristics that, if 
 you do anything at all, you end in doing 
 it well." 
 
 " Hear the British lion," said Rollins. 
 " He's making us purr." 
 
 " I'll tell you what I'll do, Gray," said 
 Colonel Wheeler, who had been talking to 
 Henderson, " I'll bet you twenty-five dol- 
 lars that Henderson will beat you on 
 Thursday, and ten dollars that he beats 
 you more than two up. I don't believe 
 you know as much about golf as you 
 think you do."
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN l8l 
 
 " I'm sorry, but I never bet on myself," 
 said Gray, quietly. " It destroys all my 
 pleasure." 
 
 "That's queer," remarked Henderson. 
 " I never play so well as when there is 
 something up on the result." 
 
 " I'll take you with pleasure, colonel," 
 said Rollins. " How much did you say 
 twenty-five and ten? " 
 
 " On Thursday, then," said Henderson, 
 rising and moving toward the door. 
 
 Just then a weird figure in a bath-robe 
 appeared from the direction of the locker- 
 room. 
 
 " Hello ! here's Jackie," said the colonel. 
 " What's he up to in that guise ? " 
 
 " I say, you, Rollins," called Jackie, 
 "you take off my ^ socks. Because you 
 haven't any of your own is no reason why 
 you should take mine." 
 
 Every one at the table shouted, while 
 Rollins straightened up and tried not to 
 look guilty. 
 
 " Why do you accuse me of having your 
 socks ? " he asked, in an injured tone. 
 "Because yours are missing (if you ever
 
 1 82 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 had any) is no good reason why you should 
 suspect me of taking them." 
 
 " I caught you red-handed," said Jackie, 
 wrathfully, "for the bath-boys say you 
 were looking for yours for an hour. Any- 
 way, if you haven't them, some one else 
 has, and I'm going to find them if I have 
 to take off all your boots myself." 
 
 Henderson had stopped on his way out, 
 to listen, and came back a step or two. 
 
 " It seems to me that your claims are 
 only limited by your vision," he said, in 
 his delicious Southern drawl. "There's 
 Mr. Rheinlander over yonder," pointing 
 to a portly, world-famed financier, "you'd 
 better go and claim his, too." 
 
 Jackie retired under fire of the shout 
 that greeted this sally, but half an hour 
 later reappeared in the dining-room, with 
 several women, in his usual faultless eve- 
 ning dress. Rollins, unable to let well 
 enough alone, went up to investigate. 
 
 "Did you find them?" he whispered, 
 with deadly interest. 
 
 "FzWthem ! " exclaimed Jackie, his face 
 like a thunder-cloud, " when you had
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN 183 
 
 them on ! Get out of my sight, or I'll tell 
 the story publicly. I'm in the mood to do 
 it, too, for I've nothing to protect me from 
 new patent leathers ! " 
 
 Thursday afternoon found Gray and 
 Henderson keen for their match. Colonel 
 Wheeler had been unable to forgive Gray 
 his comments on medal play. He took 
 everything personally, bitterly resenting 
 the fact that any person living knew 
 more about golf than he. In his heart, 
 he would have invented a patent brassey, 
 arranged to gauge distance like a modern 
 gun, but he objected to being discovered. 
 
 Gray, after a few holes, came to the 
 conclusion that Henderson was a very 
 formidable opponent. His form was crude, 
 and he pressed constantly, but his game 
 had a dash which suited his character. 
 He never knew when he was beaten, and 
 played best when he had the odds against 
 him. Gray found him the most delightful 
 companion, for he seemed to think the 
 etiquette of golf as important as the ac- 
 tual play. He was an exceptionally long 
 driver, yet appeared able to resist the
 
 184 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 temptation to rush after his ball, leaving 
 his partner to get off as best he might. 
 Gray, who was an acknowledged crank on 
 such questions, and subject to " atmos- 
 phere," found himself getting more than 
 usual pleasure out of his game. 
 
 Several of the older men, belonging to 
 Wheeler's set, had put up considerable 
 money on the result. They were almost 
 all backing Henderson, for, although Gray 
 was really a fine player, there was hardly 
 a man whom he knew who did not secretly 
 believe that he could beat him, although 
 the well-filled boxes of balls in Gray's 
 locker proved eloquently, if silently, the 
 contrary. 
 
 Colonel Wheeler was dissatisfied with 
 the tone of the players. He considered 
 them too polite by half. In his own 
 matches he invariably " jollied " his part- 
 ner into losing his temper. That, he 
 considered, was half the battle. Having 
 backed Henderson, and gotten his friends 
 to back him, he thought he owned him, 
 and felt privileged to criticise him as he 
 saw fit.
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN 185 
 
 At last he went up to him, and drew 
 him aside. 
 
 " You don't claim your rights ; you're 
 foolish," he said. " Gray, over there on 
 the fifth hole, picked up something from 
 behind his ball. You should have claimed 
 the hole." 
 
 "The twig was loose, sir," said Hender- 
 son, "and Mr. Gray removed it with my 
 permission." 
 
 Colonel Wheeler thrust his hands deep 
 into his pockets, and savagely chewed the 
 ' end of his cigar. 
 
 Toward the close of the match Gray's 
 play became a little wild, and at the fif- 
 teenth hole Henderson was dormie two. 
 The sixteenth was the sportiest on the 
 course. The carry was about one hun- 
 dred yards across a deep ravine through 
 which a little brook brawled noisily. The 
 opposite bank was slightly higher than 
 the tee, and very steep. Gray drove, and, 
 failing to get sufficient loft, he struck the 
 opposite bank. As luck would have it, 
 the ball caught on a little bump of earth, 
 instead of rolling hopelessly to the bottom.
 
 1 86 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " What luck," exclaimed Rollins, " such 
 things never happen to me." 
 
 Henderson drove, and got a good hun- 
 dred and eighty yards on the carry, with 
 a perfect lie. Colonel Wheeler looked 
 jubilant, and talked loudly as they crossed 
 the bridge. Gray took out his mashie, 
 and started to walk cautiously down the 
 steep incline. His ball was hanging by a 
 hair, and the least jar might dislodge it. 
 In attempting to get some sort of a firm 
 stance, he completely lost his balance, and 
 instinctively put out his club to save him- 
 self from a bad fall. The ball, for some un- 
 known reason, still held where it had fallen. 
 
 Colonel Wheeler rushed forward ex- 
 citedly. 
 
 " You're surely not going to be idiotic 
 enough to let that pass, Henderson," he 
 cried, " Gray soled his club in that hazard ; 
 we all saw it and he couldn't deny it if 
 he tried. The hole is yours, if you'll have 
 sense enough to claim it." 
 
 Henderson turned slowly and faced 
 Wheeler. His gray eyes flashed fire, and 
 his lips were set.
 
 A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN 187 
 
 " Colonel Wheeler," he said, with dan- 
 gerous quietness, "you'll oblige me by 
 allowing me to play my own game ; your 
 interference is intolerable, sir, and I refuse 
 to allow it any longer." 
 
 " But I'm backing you heavily, man, and 
 so are some of my friends ; you know 
 this, and " 
 
 " That is your affair, not mine," said 
 Henderson. "You don't suppose for an 
 instant your backing could influence me 
 one way or the other. By heaven, 
 sir ! " he cried, suddenly losing his self 
 control, "if I thought any man implied 
 any such dishonourable thing, I'd strike 
 him dead ! Yes, sir, I'd strike him 
 dead ! " 
 
 " But, Henderson " began Colonel 
 Wheeler, feebly. 
 
 Henderson reached him with one stride. 
 
 " You heard what I said," he repeated, 
 passionately. " If any man implied that to 
 me, I'd strike him dead. I'd strike him 
 dead ! " Then he turned to Gray and asked 
 him to play on. 
 
 Gray won two holes straight, and they
 
 1 88 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 walked to the tee of the first hole to play 
 off the tie. 
 
 " Well, for a real common, every-day fool, 
 commend me to Henderson," said the 
 colonel, defiantly, although still a trifle 
 white. 
 
 " For an exhibition of true sportsman- 
 ship, commend me to the same," said Rol- 
 lins, as he went over to congratulate Gray 
 on the match.
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW
 
 IX 
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW. 
 
 " "\ T 7E really shouldn't sacrifice Uncle 
 V V Nat again this year," said Mary, 
 looking at her sister with earnest convic- 
 tion. " He is such an angel, and he has 
 seen nothing but a colourless strip of beach 
 and bath-houses for three years. I think 
 his turn has come." 
 
 Frances threw back her head with a 
 little impatient gesture. 
 
 "It is the survival of the fittest," she 
 said, decidedly. "Artistic people will 
 forget you, if you will allow yourself to 
 be forgotten. The new picture on the 
 wall is not substantial enough for me. 
 I'd rather play with fire, or any other 
 exciting element." 
 
 " Yes," assented Mary, " that is an 
 absorbing occupation, but honestly, we 
 191
 
 192 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 have been too selfish ; it is time to turn 
 over a new leaf." 
 
 Frances threw up her hands in despair. 
 
 " When you become virtuous, that ends 
 it. To Gloucester we'll go, willy-nilly. 
 Oh, you'll be all right," she added, " those 
 tender, near-sighted eyes would stir the 
 heart of an inanimate protoplasm, but for 
 me the only thing left will be to put on 
 a red coat and spread myself abroad as ' a 
 bit of colour.' Disguised as such, I may 
 catch the eye of some wandering artist, 
 perhaps even hold it for a moment, that 
 is, if he has a Vandyke beard and a som- 
 brero. With me, it must always be all or 
 nothing." 
 
 "It is strange," murmured her sister, 
 with a far-away look, "how fine a line 
 there can sometimes be between all or 
 nothing." 
 
 " Now you are beyond me," said Fran- 
 ces, as she left the room. 
 
 Uncle Nat received the news of the 
 decision to spend the summer in Glouces- 
 ter with gentle placidity. He would 
 believe in Gloucester, in its sunsets, its
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 193 
 
 blue waters, its heavenly moors, when 
 he arrived there. Experience had taught 
 him that the guardian of two attractive 
 nieces must not allow his tastes or dispo- 
 sition to become set. To plan was one 
 thing, to execute another. 
 
 When they all rattled through Glouces- 
 ter's quaint streets in a tumbled-down old 
 victoria like an ark, Uncle Nat was still 
 with them in the flesh, but his soul was 
 in an earthly paradise. 
 
 " How deliciously salty it is ! " he said, 
 as they turned out toward Eastern Point. 
 
 " How deliciously fishy, you mean," 
 said Frances, with an agonised sniff. 
 
 For the first few days the girls did 
 nothing but rave over the beauty of the 
 place. Then the Inn, with its quaint 
 china and great open fireplaces, the meas- 
 ureless stretch of ocean and moor the 
 afterglow all palled. 
 
 " I don't think I've ever been part of 
 such an absolute hen-party before," said 
 Mary, as she glanced along the piazza, one 
 day after tea. 
 
 " I don't mind the hen-party so much,
 
 194 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 if only I could get a little golf," answered 
 Frances, hopelessly. "Women in big 
 doses like this are usually harmless. It 
 is only when you get the leaven of a few 
 attractive men mixed in, that the dregs 
 come to the surface." . 
 
 "This is a maddening place," said 
 Mary, following out her own train of 
 thought. " Look at those rocks ! What 
 opportunities ! Just think of the sailing 
 and the moonlight and the stars, with only 
 one's sister to whom one can communi- 
 cate the 'thrill of things,' it's cruel." 
 
 Gradually through the golden haze of 
 Uncle Nat's earthly paradise there crept 
 the dim consciousness that some one was 
 unhappy. He knew it was not himself, 
 so he began to search vaguely for the 
 serpent in his Eden. 
 
 "What are you going to do to-day, 
 girls ? " he asked one morning, as he 
 stood, sketch-block in hand, ready to get 
 the benefit of a perfect gray day. 
 
 " Oh, ever so many things," said Mary, 
 stifling a yawn. " Have you anything you 
 would like mended ? "
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 195 
 
 Uncle Nat looked troubled. 
 
 " No, my dear, no," he answered, hastily ; 
 then he glanced at Frances, who was sit- 
 ting in a dejected heap on the piazza 
 steps. " Don't wait dinner for me," he 
 added, as he moved away. " I've had a 
 little something put up. I'm afraid the 
 girls are dull, very dull," he thought, ab- 
 stractedly. Then a sky effect caught his 
 eye, and, jumping on his wheel, he hurried 
 down the road to his " subject." 
 
 He painted steadily, absorbed and for- 
 getful, for two or three hours. Things 
 were " making " better than he had antici- 
 pated, and he began to see that his sketch 
 would be a little gem. Looking up from 
 his work for a moment, to find his water- 
 bottle, he saw a man wheel by with a bag 
 of golf clubs on his back. He watched 
 him ride out of sight through his great 
 round glasses, feeling that he was inti- 
 mately connected with some important 
 subject, but unable to get down from the 
 clouds all in a moment. Suddenly, when 
 it was too late, he realised that he should 
 have stopped the man and inquired for
 
 196 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 the golf links. Frances would be so 
 disappointed, he thought, reproachfully ; 
 then glancing up, he saw just the light he 
 had been longing for on the middle dis- 
 tance, and the incident passed completely 
 out of his mind. 
 
 One afternoon a few days later, as he 
 was packing up his traps to return to the 
 Inn, he saw the same man go by with his 
 caddy-bag over his shoulder. He hailed 
 him loudly, then, apologising for his abrupt- 
 ness, inquired about the links. 
 
 " They're some little distance from 
 here," said the wheelman, doubtfully, 
 looking at Uncle Nat's cheerful rotundity. 
 " But, do you play ? " 
 
 " No ; I have a niece who is very enthu- 
 siastic. I'm afraid she finds Gloucester 
 somewhat dull." 
 
 The man thought for a moment. " If 
 you care to walk up the road with me a 
 little way, I'll introduce you to Mr. Morris, 
 the president," said the golfer. " My 
 name is Wright, and I'm staying with 
 him. His cottage is just around the 
 corner."
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 197 
 
 An hour later Uncle Nat appeared 
 on the Inn piazza, and put a little slip 
 of paper into Frances's hand. It was 
 the receipt for the season's dues for the 
 Gloucester Golf Club. He related the 
 incident to the girls, to a running accom- 
 paniment of delighted exclamations from 
 Frances. 
 
 " Mr. Wright is a very charming man, 
 my dears, a very charming man, and so is 
 Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris is an artist and 
 plays golf for relaxation. He has over- 
 worked himself, it appears. He is with 
 his mother and " 
 
 "Is he young?" asked Mary, with a 
 dawning interest. 
 
 " Quite young." 
 
 And Mr. Wright ? " 
 
 " Mr. Wright is also young, and a great 
 golfer." 
 
 " Not Lawrence Wright, the Longmere 
 champion ? " exclaimed Frances, excitedly. 
 
 " Well, he certainly said something 
 about Longmere." 
 
 " Oh, joy, now we shall begin to live ! " 
 she cried, enthusiastically.
 
 198 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 The next day, with Uncle Nat as 
 chaperon, Frances and Mary started out 
 for the links. They were walking, as 
 Mary did not ride a bicycle, did not do 
 anything in fact but look pretty and dance 
 exquisitely in slippers that her best friends 
 said were at least two sizes too small for 
 her. 
 
 " You won't mind just for one after- 
 noon, dear," said Frances to Uncle Nat ; 
 " it's too bright to paint to-day, you 
 said so yourself this morning, and after 
 this we won't have to bother you ever 
 again." 
 
 Morris and Wright overtook them about 
 half-way from the links. Morris had the 
 Vandyke beard that Frances considered 
 necessary to an artist, but she had no 
 thought for any one but the Longmere 
 champion. Morris was evidently quite 
 struck with Mary's appearance, and stood 
 looking at her with half-closed eyes, as 
 though she were a piece of marble. 
 Frances and Mr. Wright walked on ahead, 
 deep in the discussion of the art of long 
 driving.
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 199 
 
 " Here we are," said Wright, suddenly 
 letting down two bars of an old gate. 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " Here ! " he replied, his eyes dancing 
 with amusement. 
 
 Frances looked around, blankly. To 
 her unaccustomed gaze there seemed at 
 first to be nothing but rocks and dense 
 thickets of fragrant bay. Every here and 
 there a great boulder rose high in the air, 
 and sheltered at its base grew little stunted 
 pines. 
 
 " Do you mean " began Frances, and 
 then stopped short. 
 
 "This is the Gloucester Golf Club," 
 said Wright, with a profound bow, "and 
 its president and secretary welcome the 
 new member." 
 
 Frances drew a long breath. 
 
 "You'll have to show me how to play 
 here," she said, rather hopelessly. " I 
 have never been on any course quite 
 like it." 
 
 " The way to do on such rough links is 
 to confine yourself almost entirely to your 
 irons," said Wright. " A brassey is worse
 
 200 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 than useless, because you have to play it 
 in such a peculiar way that you get into 
 bad habits. If I were you, I'd take my 
 brassey out of my bag, to be quite free 
 from temptation, and use my cleek for all 
 long shots through the green." 
 
 " I never could play an iron," said 
 Frances, still depressed. 
 
 " This is a splendid opportunity to learn ; 
 a girl won't work at her irons until she 
 must, the brassey is too tempting. If 
 you do as I suggest, and really conquer 
 them this summer, you will find your 
 game wonderfully strengthened." 
 
 By this time they had reached the tee 
 of the first hole, called the twins. Two 
 great boulders about a foot apart guarded 
 the green, and smaller ones were dotted 
 all along the line of the hole in generous 
 profusion. Morris started off with his 
 friend Burgeman, who had been patiently 
 waiting for him. 
 
 "What are you going to do, Mary?" 
 asked Frances, as she prepared to start 
 off. 
 
 " I'm going to sit on this lovely rock
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 2OI 
 
 with Uncle Nat for a little while," an- 
 swered Mary, arranging herself pictur- 
 esquely as she spoke. " Don't be too long 
 with your tiresome golf." 
 
 Uncle Nat sat down beside her, and 
 gazed about him, drinking in the air and 
 sunshine. After a few moments he thought 
 he saw something which gave promise of 
 a pretty "bit," and sauntered off to ex- 
 plore. Mary sat quiet and somewhat dis- 
 consolate under her red sunshade, which 
 made the atmosphere about her a veritable 
 couleur de rose, but the fresh, crisp breeze, 
 the pungent odour of bay, the droning 
 voices of a thousand insects, all com- 
 bined to make her lean back in lazy, 
 physical contentment, while her mind 
 wandered inconsequently over a thousand 
 trifles. 
 
 Meanwhile Frances had driven and 
 failed to clear the twins. Her ball, going 
 off sharply to the right, found a fairly good 
 lie on the mossy ground. 
 
 " What shall I do now ? " she asked, 
 feeling utterly helpless without her bras- 
 sey.
 
 202 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 "Take your cleek, of course, since you 
 want distance," said Wright. 
 
 " But I always miss with a cleek." 
 
 " Oh, come, be a sport and try it ! You 
 miss because you don't take your stroke 
 properly. Put your left foot quite a little 
 ahead of your ball, turn the blade of your 
 club a trifle over toward the left, then 
 when you start to take your stroke, fol- 
 low back along the ground just as far as 
 you can. When your arms can't go out 
 any further go on up to the top of your 
 swing and come down hard. You'll be 
 surprised to see the distance you'll gain." 
 
 " It sounds complicated, but I'll try it," 
 said Frances. 
 
 She followed out all directions perfectly, 
 but played quite over the ball. 
 
 "That is what I always do," she said, 
 disgustedly. " Oh, how I do hate an 
 iron ! " 
 
 "It was my fault," said Wright, "be- 
 cause I forgot to tell you that you must 
 always try to take a bit of the ground with 
 you. Not so much with a cleek as with 
 a mashie, but still it's a good idea to keep
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 203 
 
 the ground in mind. Do you know, I ven- 
 ture to prophesy that you'll be desperately 
 in love with a cleek before many days are 
 over." 
 
 They played on for a number of holes, 
 Frances having rather poor success with 
 her irons. She felt afraid to move, as 
 there seemed to be nothing but stones and 
 brambles everywhere. 
 
 " I wonder what makes you founder 
 your ball so badly ? " said Wright, with 
 a puzzled frown. " Swing again, and let 
 me try to see." 
 
 He studied her carefully for a moment, 
 then his brow cleared. 
 
 "You don't hold firmly enough with 
 your left hand," he announced. "Try 
 a tight grip, and keep your left arm stiff. 
 That's the way," as a ball went soaring 
 off toward the green. 
 
 Meanwhile, Uncle Nat had completely 
 disappeared, and Mary, quite alone, was 
 gazing dreamily into space. She was at 
 last aroused by the persistent rustling in 
 the bushes near her boulder. Glancing 
 carelessly around, she saw a sight which
 
 2O4 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 turned her blood to ice. Very near her 
 a cow and a young calf were browsing 
 placidly, but filing slowly through a break 
 in the fence directly back of her came the 
 rest of the herd. Mary jumped to her feet, 
 and looked about wildly. 
 
 " Give me mice, snakes, tree-toads, or 
 even woozy things, but never cows," she 
 had often been heard to exclaim. 
 
 The herd, catching sight of her, stood 
 still in wonder, and gazed solemnly at the 
 tall figure on top of the rock. 
 
 " Oh, why don't they look the other 
 way," she cried, wringing her hands. 
 
 The action caused the red sunshade to 
 wobble menacingly. Several of the cows 
 came nearer to further investigate. Then 
 a young steer bellowed a low warning and 
 switched his tail slowly to and fro. Mary 
 gave a piercing shriek and waved her 
 sunshade frantically in the direction of 
 Frances, whose white skirt gleamed like 
 a sail on the water. The breeze, coming 
 from the ocean, carried the sound in the 
 opposite direction, and Frances played 
 on stonily. Mary continued to wave and
 
 THE LADY AND THE COW 
 
 shriek, while the steer, suddenly enraged 
 by the movement and sound, bellowed 
 loudly, and started toward the boulder. 
 With one last frantic wave, Mary literally 
 threw herself down the side of the sharp 
 incline, and, throwing the sunshade in the 
 steer's face, raced madly down the course. 
 The steer, thoroughly enraged, put its 
 head down and galloped after. 
 
 When Mr. Morris and his friend turned 
 away from the third green they saw a 
 flying figure coming toward them, with 
 imploring hands outstretched. Morris 
 sprang forward, while Mary, utterly ex- 
 hausted, staggered and would have fallen 
 at his feet had he not caught her just in 
 time. He drew her quickly aside while 
 the steer charged on down the course. 
 Mr. Burgeman started on a dead run for 
 Frances, while Morris, left alone with the 
 unconscious Mary, began fumbling with 
 trembling hands at her collar button. 
 
 " Poor little thing ! " he murmured. 
 " Heavens ! how pretty she is ! " Giving 
 up the collar button in despair, he began 
 slapping her hands violently, swearing in-
 
 2O6 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 wardly at Uncle Nat for his desertion. 
 Then Frances hurried up and in a few 
 moments brought Mary to with deft 
 touches. 
 
 "You silly little goose," she said, with 
 a half tender, half disdainful air, "you 
 should have been born a hundred years 
 ago." 
 
 The following autumn, when Frances 
 spoke of her sister's engagement, she 
 always did it with an air of gentle depre- 
 cation. 
 
 " Oh, yes, it was Gloucester and a 
 cow!" she would say; "but then neither 
 he nor she belongs to our day and genera- 
 tion. Mary puts up preserves, does tapes- 
 try work and faints most becomingly at 
 the proper moment, while Mr. Morris is the 
 kind of man who is never so happy as 
 when he is protecting some one, so per- 
 haps, after all, they will do the least harm 
 to a progressive world by marrying each 
 other. So far as I am personally con- 
 cerned," she added, "the only kind of a 
 match that appeals to me is a golf match."
 
 THE 
 CONVERSION OF ST. OURS
 
 THE 
 CONVERSION OF ST. OURS 
 
 ST. OURS was excited. It is one of 
 the most quiet, most temperate, most 
 well-conducted of villages, but it was 
 excited, and with good reason. The ap- 
 proaching railroad had long threatened it, 
 foot by foot, mile by mile ; now a stage 
 ride of a few hours was all that separated 
 it from the wicked world. The Herald 
 of the morning of that morning had 
 announced the approach of a golf club. 
 It stated that " negotiations for some time 
 in progress had at length been concluded 
 between the Cleek Club and certain par- 
 ties of St. Ours, for the site of a house 
 and grounds suitable for links." No com- 
 ments accompanied the announcement, 
 209
 
 2IO DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 although every one turned the leaf expect- 
 ing to read a scathing editorial. It had 
 long been rumoured that the Cleek Golf 
 Club had designs upon St. Ours, but it 
 was confidently believed that the patriot- 
 ism of the villagers would resist all temp- 
 tations and virtuously refuse to sell their 
 land for so profane a purpose. Think of 
 it, golf on a Sunday, the women in golf 
 costumes, St. Ours surrendered to clubs, 
 cleeks, mashies, brasseys, and the like, 
 the Sunday school children impressed as 
 caddies ! Impossible ! 
 
 St. Ours has no small vices. The tra- 
 ditions of English reformers, and a long 
 line of Puritan ancestry, restrain and regu- 
 late it. It permits no desecration of the 
 Sabbath, no irreverence. Its selectmen, 
 in short, all its seniors, were grave and 
 reverend men. 
 
 Mr. Silverpen, secretary of the Golf 
 Club, did not have an easy task in negoti- 
 ating with those gentlemen for the pur- 
 chase of the St. Ours links. It was Mr. 
 Monies, the banker, who sold the land, 
 but all the selectmen were present at the
 
 THE CONVERSION OF ST. OURS 2 1 I 
 
 preliminary conferences. It was not, as 
 some might ungenerously suppose, that 
 they were afraid the banker might be 
 tempted to make some' concessions un- 
 worthy of the village, it was the banker 
 who was unwilling even to discuss the 
 terms of such a sale without the advice of 
 his friends. 
 
 "There must be no Sunday playing, 
 Mr. Silverpen, that must be distinctly 
 understood," said Mr. Monies. 
 
 " I have gone over that matter with my 
 friends. I will not conceal from you that 
 some of our people made serious objections 
 to that clause. You see, Mr. Monies, we 
 are city men who work at high pres- 
 sure all the week. Some of us can get 
 away on Friday afternoon, perhaps, others 
 not until Saturday. Of course, if we can- 
 not play on Sunday it is a serious depri- 
 vation. But I have placed your scruples 
 before them plainly and forcibly. They 
 respect them, and they will waive that point 
 if you insist upon it. We think St. Ours 
 a model village in every respect, gentle- 
 men, and we are willing to make sacri-
 
 212 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 fices for the purpose of being identified 
 with it." 
 
 " You are willing to accept that condi- 
 tion and have it incorporated in the deed ? " 
 inquired Mr. Monies, somewhat taken 
 aback. 
 
 " We are." 
 
 " Then, gentlemen, I believe that re- 
 moves all objections," said Mr. Monies, 
 beaming round upon his friends. 
 
 And thus the momentous deed was 
 signed. 
 
 The opening of the Cleek Golf Club 
 was a memorable event at St. Ours. The 
 members, their friends, and their friends' 
 friends took possession of the village. Mrs. 
 Carhart, wife of the pharmacist, rented 
 every room in her house for a month on her 
 own terms. Mr. Denim, the dry goods mer- 
 chant, rented his cottage for the summer, 
 while Mr. Plane, the carpenter, retired 
 with his family to his barn. The butcher, 
 the baker, the blacksmith, and all the rest 
 followed suit. The sound of hammer, 
 plane, and saw made merry music all day 
 long.
 
 THE CONVERSION OF ST. OURS 21$ 
 
 On Saturday morning, Mr. Monies was 
 busy receiving deposits, and opening ac- 
 counts with his visitors. St. Ours had 
 never experienced anything to compare 
 with it. 
 
 On Sunday the churches were all filled 
 to overflowing. When the deacons passed 
 the plates for contributions, St. Ours ex- 
 perienced another sensation. The bills 
 dropped, fluttering into them like falling 
 leaves in autumn. Among the villagers, 
 ten cents, or less, was considered not an 
 unworthy contribution, twenty-five cents 
 was generous, and fifty, verging upon ex- 
 travagance. 
 
 Mr. Silverpen, the secretary of the 
 Cleeks, was a very clever, tactful man, as 
 may be gathered from his success with the 
 preceding negotiations, but there was one 
 man in the village, the old miller, who re- 
 sisted alike his temptations, his logic, and 
 his blandishments, for the links purchased 
 of the village banker proved to be utterly 
 inadequate. An extension was required, 
 and the miller owned all the land adjoining. 
 In this dilemma, Mrs. Remington and Miss
 
 214 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 Duval were appointed as a committee to 
 see him, and soften his hard heart. It 
 was no slight undertaking. His reputa- 
 tion for obstinacy and hard-headedness 
 extended to regions remote from St. Ours. 
 He had been at war with his own village 
 as long as the oldest inhabitant could re- 
 member ; at war on any and every subject, 
 on general principles ; but the pet subject 
 of dispute was his mill. The village ob- 
 jected to his running his mill for gain on 
 Sunday. He was willing that it should 
 respect the Sabbath when there was no 
 wind, " but, shut down my mill when there 
 is a fair wind ? Never ! " There had been 
 infinite contention on this subject, but the 
 old miller held the mill, and the sails sailed 
 with every fair wind on saints' days or sin- 
 ners' days. 
 
 Speaking of sinners, there is a village 
 about seven miles from St. Ours, called St. 
 Sinners. It is a village of notorious in- 
 temperance, and there the miller made his 
 purchases in order to slight the restraints 
 and express his indifference to the opinion 
 of St. Ours. It was a bright, progressive
 
 THE CONVERSION OF ST. OURS 2 1 5 
 
 little place, but its manner of respecting 
 Sunday indicated its belief that the Sab- 
 bath was indeed made for man, not man for 
 the Sabbath. It regarded St. Ours with 
 withering contempt, and openly rejoiced 
 in the fact that it was not obliged to live 
 up to any Puritan ancestry. It looked 
 upon the summer people who chose St. 
 Ours in preference to itself as one half 
 mad, and the other half imbecile. Never- 
 theless, it desired, above all things, these 
 same people, wishing to divert the stream 
 of gold which flowed from their pockets 
 into its own empty ones. Its selectmen 
 openly announced that if the Cleek Club 
 would make its home in St. Sinners, in- 
 stead of St. Ours, they could have Sunday 
 privileges to their hearts' content, and St. 
 Sinners would not only permit them, but 
 would rejoice with them. 
 
 All this the miller knew, having travelled 
 much in his youth and being given to visit- 
 ing St. Sinners for the purpose of keeping 
 well in touch with the times. 
 
 All this he kept carefully to himself, 
 being divided between his love for his vil-
 
 2l6 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 lage, the inanimate part of it, and his con- 
 tempt for the narrowness of his neighbours. 
 
 When Mrs. Remington and Miss Duval 
 called upon this intractable citizen, at his 
 cottage, the winds were adverse and the 
 mill was idle. It was Saturday ; the miller 
 was sitting under the shade of his portico, 
 surrounded by his wife, children, and grand- 
 children, the last with hair as white as his 
 own, and cheeks as ruddy. The house was 
 old, quaint, and moss-grown, the weather- 
 boards bleached to a warm gray, which 
 lighted up delicately in the sunlight, and 
 suggested the soft tints worn by its Puri- 
 tan owners of bygone days. Nasturtiums, 
 sweet peas, and other old country flowers 
 bloomed everywhere, while climbing roses 
 peeped into the opened windows of many 
 panes. 
 
 As the two women opened the gate, 
 they realised that their golf costumes were 
 being subjected to criticism, but as they 
 saw the village maidens spinning by on 
 wheels, their skirts only slightly less 
 abbreviated than their own, they took 
 courage.
 
 THE CONVERSION OF ST. OURS 21 7 
 
 " Good morning," they both said, 
 sweetly ; whereupon the miller and his 
 flock all rose, and offered them seats. 
 Mrs. Remington believed in first impres- 
 sions. She studied the old man's face 
 keenly, while she spoke to one or two of 
 the children. She saw, at a glance, that 
 nothing was to be gained by procrastina- 
 tion, so she stated her purpose at once, 
 with frank simplicity. 
 
 "You "see," she said, as they walked 
 along, " one is never satisfied with what 
 one has in this world. One always wants 
 more ; and as your village is so charming, 
 and your air so delicious, we realise that 
 our little nine-hole course will soon be 
 overcrowded. Of course," with a side- 
 glance, "we could go to St. Sinners, and 
 get all the ground we want but " 
 
 " I'm surprised you don't go," he an- 
 swered. "You would be better appre- 
 ciated. Your presence enables us to en- 
 joy the first comforts we have ever been 
 able to afford, but we do not thank you 
 we are too much your debtors for 
 that"
 
 2l8 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Perhaps we shall have to go in the 
 end," she agreed, "unless you take pity 
 upon us." 
 
 "Why should I?" he asked, stopping 
 suddenly. " I am an old man, and I have 
 all I want, more than I want. My land 
 is dear to me. It was owned by my father 
 and by my father's fathers. Why should I 
 give it into the hands of strangers ? Why 
 should I, even indirectly, put into the 
 pockets of my enemies more money than 
 they have ever had in their lives before, 
 more than is good for them, that I know ? 
 Why should I not let you go to St. Sin- 
 ners, and thus repay in kind the slights 
 and abuses heaped upon me by a narrow, 
 bigoted community ? " 
 
 " Because you, yourself, are not as they 
 are," she answered. " Because if you were 
 to do such a thing, you would put yourself 
 upon their level ; it would be unworthy of 
 you." 
 
 He looked across his broad, undulating 
 fields, and pondered. 
 
 " I could never sell it," he said, with a 
 deep breath, turning away, " but I'll see
 
 THE CONVERSION OF ST. OURS 2 19 
 
 what else I can do. Not for these people ; 
 not for money " 
 
 " No, not for any of those things," said 
 Mrs. Remington, softly, as she turned 
 away.
 
 XI 
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 
 
 NOBODY knew why McGee had mar- 
 ried Miss Muriel Sweetapple. People 
 wondered and spoke of this, his matri- 
 monial plunge, before they mentioned his 
 golf or his good looks. 
 
 His golf was so much better than his mat- 
 rimonial venture, that it seemed strange his 
 domestic affairs should have been touched 
 upon, especially as, outside of sport and 
 his handsome face, McGee had no claims 
 to be considered at all. 
 
 He had little money ; his position in the 
 bank could not win for him any special 
 deference ; he was a poor, handsome 
 Briton with obscure prospects, and with 
 only a dead grind before him in a work-a- 
 day world. 
 
 But all the English set, and the New 
 223
 
 224 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 England set, and the Boston set, and the 
 Southern set, and the Home set of the 
 " California Sunnyside Club " gossiped 
 about handsome John McGee and his 
 plain English wife, who had rejoiced be- 
 fore her marriage in the fanciful name of 
 Muriel Sweetapple. 
 
 When a match was on, and the tall, 
 athletic Englishman, with his clear-cut 
 features and lithe figure, crossed the 
 green clubs in hand for the start, there 
 was always a little crowd to see the first 
 drive, and to follow him over the links. 
 
 One of the followers was usually "The 
 Cat," as he was called, a short, stocky 
 man with a heavy face and a jowl which 
 earned him his sobriquet. He was power- 
 ful, ugly, and very rich, and he was proud 
 of all these things. 
 
 He was a self-made man, and he was 
 proudest of that. 
 
 He was the power behind the throne 
 and on the throne of the Sunnyside Golf 
 Club, and he rejoiced in it. 
 
 His money, not his golf, had earned him 
 his throne, and he held it, in spite of his
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 22$ 
 
 handicap in not being able to play a 
 stroke. 
 
 His nearest rival for official honours was 
 McGee, and because he feared him, " The 
 Cat " affected to despise both the good 
 looks and the golf of the Englishman. 
 
 It was the day set apart for a match 
 between the men of " Mira Flores " and 
 "Sunnyside," and Woolsey Wimbleton 
 was very busy. He seemed to buzz like 
 the bees from one thing to another. 
 
 "A busy drone," remarked one woman 
 in lilac, who disliked him, to another, as 
 she strolled from the club-house portico 
 to the grounds. 
 
 The crowd was gathering on one of the 
 piazzas of the club-house which overlooked 
 the "putting-green " and the first tee. 
 
 The match was to decide a tie, and the 
 Sunnyside Club, being in its first season, 
 wanted badly to win. 
 
 The pretty women, in their faultless 
 summer toilets, sat in the big cane rockers 
 fanning themselves leisurely, as they 
 watched the workmen put the finishing 
 touches to the lawn.
 
 226 DRIVES AXD PUTS 
 
 The low meadows were all creamy with 
 meadow-foam, and farther on were dense 
 red masses of the common sorrel. The 
 sky was the cloudless blue of the Cali- 
 fornia late spring or early summer. Under 
 a group of eucalyptus-trees sat McGee, 
 fanning himself with his straw hat, and 
 calmly surveying the preparations, while 
 here and there and everywhere rushed 
 Woolsey Wimbleton, a small, self-con- 
 scious, assertive man, fully confident that 
 Sunnyside Club could not possibly get 
 along without his executive ability. 
 
 " I don't see how Woolsey always gets 
 himself on all the committees," exclaimed 
 pretty Blissa Littlejohn, with a pout, as 
 she shook out the draperies of her pink 
 dress and waved her white parasol to " The 
 Cat," resplendent in his scarlet coat and 
 gold buttons " he works some wires I 
 don't know anything about." 
 
 " Hush ! " answered her married sister, 
 Mrs. Norrie Calhoun, "he will hear you." 
 
 " I don't care if he does," answered 
 Blissa, in a perfectly audible tone. " I 
 would like him to hear that, and a great
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 22/ 
 
 deal more I have to say. Why, in the 
 last handicap, he showed such partiality 
 to Jennie Hopkins she just had to win. 
 Even her husband was surprised." 
 
 "Blissa," whispered her sister, with a 
 smile, " why don't you make love to him ? 
 and then you would stand a show." 
 
 " I couldn't Woolsey and I have al- 
 ways been enemies, ever since college days. 
 Now, just look at Jennie Hopkins put! 
 It is useless to deny her drives and bras- 
 seys are fine, but she can't approach at 
 all, and never takes fewer than three on 
 the green. She won't believe what any 
 baby knows, that a put is a follow through 
 just like every other stroke in golf." 
 
 "What's the matter, Miss Littlejohn ? " 
 inquired a tall, attractive-looking man, 
 dragging a chair to a shady spot on the 
 piazza beside her. "Are you at war with 
 the world ? See what I picked for you on 
 the way over from the village," and he 
 handed her some daisies which the Cali- 
 fornians call " sunshine." 
 
 "How glorious they are!" she said, 
 shaking out their golden tips. " I love to
 
 228 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 walk over their shining carpet, it makes 
 me imagine all sorts of happy things." 
 
 " You know," said the doctor, smiling, 
 for he was a California!! by birth, " how, 
 in the long ago of Spanish California, 
 the senoritas used to tell their fortunes by 
 this very 'sunshine,' just as you Eastern 
 girls tell the Marguerites, 
 
 " ' Si me quieres, no me quieres, 
 Love me, love me not.' 
 
 " Tell my fortune," and he slowly com- 
 menced to strip the leaves from a daisy. 
 
 Blissa's face flushed. " It is not for 
 me to tell it," she replied, gently, " I hear 
 that you are going away, that you start 
 for the East next week. Is it true ? " 
 
 "Well," said the doctor, seeing she did 
 not wish to pursue the subject, " my plans 
 are not wholly decided as yet." 
 
 " How the crowd is gathering ! " ex- 
 claimed Blissa. " There, yes, there is 
 Mrs. McGee and her two elder children. 
 Poor woman, how did she ever have the 
 courage to come ? "
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 22Q 
 
 " Why poor ? " queried the doctor. 
 
 " Is it possible you haven't heard the 
 latest about her?" interrupted Mrs. Van 
 Pelt, drawing her chair up to join them. 
 
 Mrs. Van Pelt was a young, round-faced, 
 smooth-skinned woman in gray. 
 
 " It is a good story ; the McGees put 
 Woolsey Wimbleton up last night, because 
 the club was full, and all the poor fellow 
 and McGee got for breakfast this morning 
 was an orange and half a biscuit. For 
 some obscure reason the marketman disap- 
 pointed." 
 
 Here Madden and Jennie Hopkins, who 
 had come up, joined in the loud laughter. 
 
 " It is quite true," continued Mrs. Van 
 Pelt, lazily, her eyes gleaming a long line 
 of blue under her drooping white lids. 
 " Mrs. McGee sat at the breakfast-table 
 and talked ' Art,' while McGee and Wool- 
 sey Wimbleton starved." 
 
 " It is a millstone around a man's neck 
 to have a wife like that," exclaimed Mrs. 
 Hopkins, critically examining the shaft 
 of her cleek. "McGee used to be well 
 groomed before he married, just as neat
 
 230 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 and faultless in his appearance as could 
 be. Now, even his business confreres poke 
 fun at his shabby appearance. It is only 
 his good golf which gives him any place 
 at all." 
 
 At this juncture two ominous lines 
 appeared between Blissa Littlejohn's 
 brows, and the doctor looked black. 
 
 "The other morning," resumed Mrs. 
 Van Pelt, with an amiable smile, " he 
 was so late at the office that the fellows 
 guyed him when he appeared. His apol- 
 ogy was that the baby had burned her 
 foot at the breakfast table by putting it 
 into the porridge-dish." 
 
 A prolonged shout of laughter greeted 
 this story. 
 
 "The very latest," continued Woolsey 
 Wimbleton, who had sauntered up to join 
 them, "and authenticated." 
 
 "For shame!" ejaculated Blissa, "the 
 poor woman is maligned." 
 
 " This isn't golf," said the doctor, rising 
 with a sigh, " I must go and look up my 
 clubs," and somehow Mrs. Van Pelt felt 
 at that moment that her story had not
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 23! 
 
 had the unqualified success she had ex- 
 pected for it. 
 
 The match got well under way and all 
 the women joined the gallery. They fol- 
 lowed every stroke breathlessly, especially 
 Mrs. Hopkins, who was the bright par- 
 ticular star of the Sunnyside feminine 
 contingent. 
 
 She was to be played first in the great 
 match against the women's team from 
 "Mariposa," an honour for which she had 
 schemed and manoeuvred for many weeks. 
 None of the steady players were quite so 
 good as she, and there were even one or 
 two women who acknowledged that her 
 golf deserved to win, but what small pop- 
 ularity she might have possessed she lost 
 by her conceit and her bragging. 
 
 " One can tolerate good golf in another 
 woman sometimes, but never postmortems,' 
 said Mrs. Van Pelt, languidly. 
 
 Woolsey Wimbleton nad just driven 
 from the fifth tee, and had the joy of 
 seeing his opponent bunkered, when a 
 footman approached Mrs. Hopkins, and 
 asked to speak to her.
 
 232 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Impossible ! " she said, aloud, after he 
 had delivered his message. " It can't be 
 so serious as all that." 
 
 " But it is, madam," protested the man, 
 looking worn and anxious. " Miss Ethel 
 has not been well for some days." He 
 was covered from head to foot with fine 
 white dust, and had evidently been riding 
 madly. 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins stood irresolute for a 
 moment. " I will come," she said, at 
 length. " Could you imagine anything 
 more maddening ? " turning to Mrs. Van 
 Pelt. " Miss Baldwin, the governess, tells 
 me that Ethel is seriously ill, and begs me 
 to return immediately. Isn't she inconsid- 
 erate, when she knew that I had counted 
 on seeing this match. Go and find 
 Doctor Rossiter, James, and tell him I 
 need him at once. He is ahead of the 
 first couple somewhere on the fifteenth 
 tee." 
 
 " Scarlet fever ! " exclaimed Mrs. Hop- 
 kins, when the doctor had made his diag- 
 nosis. " It is impossible, it cannot be ; why, 
 I never let her play with other children,
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 233 
 
 and the governess and the maids never 
 visit in poor persons' houses." 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Hopkins," said the 
 doctor, gravely, "scarlet fever is no 
 respecter of persons ; unfortunately, I am 
 not mistaken in my diagnosis, but I would 
 be most happy to have you call in any of 
 my confreres" 
 
 " Oh, I don't mean to offend," returned 
 Mrs. Hopkins, hastily, "but I can't help 
 feeling how unnecessary it all is! that 
 horrid placard on the door ; why, I shall 
 be shut up for weeks all summer. 
 They'll treat me as if I had the plague, 
 and that match ! Is it too late for me to 
 go off somewhere, and leave the child with 
 a competent nurse ? " 
 
 " Impossible," replied the doctor, shortly. 
 
 " Well, then, I suppose I shall have to 
 bear it," and she threw herself angrily 
 down on the sofa. "Your room is all 
 ready for you, in case of need, and Mr. 
 Hopkins's valet will get whatever you 
 may require." Then she rose and walked 
 deliberately away. 
 
 The doctor stood still a few moments,
 
 234 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 troubled and silent, the care lines deepen- 
 ing on his face. 
 
 " There is only one woman among all the 
 women I know who is a known quantity 
 and is she ? " he added, as he picked up 
 his hat and walked out into the sunshine. 
 
 There was little hope of the Sunnyside 
 Club winning the team match, with Mrs. 
 Hopkins counted out. Very unwillingly 
 they had come to this conclusion, but there 
 was no woman who was really strong 
 enough to take her place. Practise as 
 Blissa Littlejohn might, she knew the 
 chances of her winning were very faint. 
 Her game was pretty to look at, but it 
 lacked distance, and distance in the end 
 does count. Then, she was distraite, 
 and almost unhappy, and decidedly nerv- 
 ous. 
 
 " You will have to give up tea, Blissa," 
 exclaimed Mrs. Norrie Calhoun, as the 
 tears came into her sister's eyes. 
 
 " And why should I give up tea ? " 
 
 "Well, you just must; any girl who is 
 always having tears come into her eyes on 
 every occasion and any occasion is in a
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 235 
 
 wrought up condition, and must give up 
 tea." 
 
 "Well, it isn't tea!" 
 
 " Then it's golf." 
 
 " No, it isn't golf, although I can't play 
 even a little bit." 
 
 "Then it's those two men, Blissa." 
 
 They were sitting in the garden, and the 
 table had been placed under a pear-tree. 
 The small green fruit shone glossy under 
 the leaves, and some of the branches almost 
 touched the ground ; others were trained 
 up against a high brown fence, forming a 
 screen from the too intrusive wind. It 
 was Blissa's favourite corner, and she had 
 chosen it the first day they had taken 
 Villa Flora. How sweet it all was ! The 
 old-fashioned, square garden beds, laid out 
 after the stiff, conventional fashion of Ver- 
 sailles, the thick violet borders, the tall, 
 flaunting candytuft, the red Burgundy 
 rose, crimsoning the ground with its fallen 
 petals, and strangely murmuring through 
 the tree-tops the sighing wind, as though 
 chanting the dirge of the passing day. 
 
 " I am the only discordant note in this
 
 236 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 beautiful scene," said Blissa, aloud. " I 
 am glad there are no ' X-Rays ' invented 
 which can look into my heart." 
 
 "Blissa," said her sister, meditatively, 
 "why don't you marry the doctor?" 
 
 Blissa was silent. 
 
 " For a very good reason," she said at 
 length ; "he hasn't asked me." 
 
 "Then you won't let him." 
 
 " Yes, I will ; I have given him loads of 
 opportunities." 
 
 " Will you refuse him if he does ask 
 you?" 
 
 "Perhaps." 
 
 " Blissa, you are in love with him." 
 
 " I have given you no reason to believe 
 so," exclaimed the girl, tartly. " He is 
 only one among many." 
 
 " The one of many." 
 
 Blissa lifted up her tea-cup and poured 
 off the few remaining drops. " Shall I tell 
 your fortune ? " she asked. " I am always 
 telling fortunes in California, either with 
 daisies or tea-cups, both equally foolish 
 and depressing." 
 
 " No, let me tell yours," replied her sis-
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 
 
 ter, gathering up the folds of her white 
 dress, and moving nearer the table. Then 
 she lifted the Dresden tea-cup, and scanned 
 the moistened tea-leaves silently. 
 
 " Tears ! " scoffed Blissa, " I could tell 
 that myself ; they are all over the cup." 
 
 " They are tears of your own making." 
 
 "Isn't there anything else besides 
 tears?" 
 
 "Yes; money." 
 
 " That's good ; I could not get on with- 
 out money. What else ? " 
 
 "A big house " 
 
 "On a hill," continued the girl. "It 
 must be on a hilL" Then she burst into 
 tears. "I couldn't bear to be poor," she 
 sobbed. "I couldn't." 
 
 "You wouldn't be so very poor," Mrs. 
 Calhoun suggested ; " he has a good prac- 
 tice." 
 
 "I couldn't have any more French 
 gowns," replied the girl, " and I do so love 
 French gowns." 
 
 "But some husbands love their wives 
 best in simple muslins," persisted Mrs. 
 Nome Calhoun, from a sense of duty.
 
 238 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " Yours doesn't," retorted Blissa, drying 
 her eyes, and regarding scornfully her 
 sister's befrilled and beruffled creation. 
 
 " His French education ! " sighed Mrs. 
 Calhoun, but it was not an unhappy sigh. 
 
 " It's all very well for you to argue in 
 this way for love in a cottage and all that, 
 when you have money to burn, but to live 
 in a cottage, and make one's own dresses ! 
 To cut one's own golf skirt ! To know that 
 it sagged at the sides, and hooped up in 
 the middle of the back ! I simply couldn't 
 bear it." 
 
 " How is little Ethel Hopkins I won- 
 der ? " said her sister, changing the theme. 
 " I'm afraid she is very ill. No one has 
 had more than a glimpse of the doctor for 
 days. He is simply wrapped up in that 
 child." 
 
 " I hope it will end well," murmured 
 Blissa, thoughtfully. 
 
 Meanwhile Ethel's fever grew apace, 
 and Mrs. Hopkins was kept a close pris- 
 oner. She sat at her window, and through 
 her field-glasses watched the golfers drive 
 by in their scarlet coats. The air trem-
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 239 
 
 bled with the heat of June, the little brook 
 which wound in and out of the canon was 
 almost dry. The wealth of wayside flowers 
 lay choked in dust. She grew hungry, not 
 for food, but for the sight of a congenial 
 face. She used to sob and cry for hours 
 over what she called the " desertion " of 
 her friends. " They might have come to 
 see me," she cried, "/haven't anything." 
 
 One day a figure slowly climbed the 
 dusty road to the house. It was a lady, 
 proclaimed by a certain dignity of bearing 
 in spite of the old-fashioned clothes. Mrs. 
 Hopkins steadied her field-glass. 
 
 "Mrs. McGee!" she exclaimed, in sur- 
 prise, " what can possibly bring her here ? 
 Thomas, tell Mrs. McGee I will see her at 
 once." She almost ran into the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 "This is very kind of you," she cried, 
 " very kind. But aren't you afraid ? I 
 haven't been near Ethel, but still " 
 
 "No, I'm not afraid," replied Mrs. 
 McGee. " I nursed my three children 
 through scarlet fever, and ' 
 
 " Not yourself 7 You mean your nurses ? "
 
 240 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 " No ; I did," returned her visitor, quietly. 
 "We were too poor to have nurses." 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins looked at the woman be- 
 fore her in a new light. The former was 
 a time-server ; ungenerous, self-centred ; 
 but under the thick dross of worldliness 
 was the spark of something finer which 
 could rise to admiration of true nobility. 
 "You can't help me," she said, aloud, as 
 Mrs. McGee offered her assistance. "It 
 would only sacrifice you uselessly, and I 
 have plenty of people. I must just endure 
 it as best I can. If it were not for that 
 match I would not mind, but to have 
 worked at my golf so long, and to have all 
 my plans upset in this wretched way, is 
 really too provoking. And then, the repu- 
 tation of the team, who is there to take 
 my place ? " 
 
 Mrs. McGee hesitated. A delicate colour 
 rose in her cheeks, and she looked down at 
 the floor. " Let me take your place. I 
 play golf " 
 
 " You ! you ! " 
 
 Mrs . Hopkins stared at her with wide- 
 open eyes.
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 24! 
 
 "Yes, I," with the shadow of a smile. 
 
 Then Mrs. Hopkins, having been startled 
 out of the very bones of civility, apologised 
 to the wife of the man who was the crack 
 of the Sunnyside Golf Club. 
 
 " I used to play quite well, when I was 
 a girl," ventured the little woman, and 
 somehow Mrs. Hopkins felt, when she 
 looked into those soft gray eyes, that 
 perhaps Mrs. McGee had not always had 
 skirts that hung badly and a belt that 
 " missed connections " in the back. She 
 thought of the many little fingers tugging 
 at this same ill-hanging skirt, and vaguely 
 wondered if she would always have been 
 well groomed if fortune had reversed their 
 fates. 
 
 "We have about ten days before the 
 date fixed with ' Mariposa,' have we not ? " 
 inquired Mrs. McGee, to break the silence 
 which had become oppressive. 
 
 "Yes, just ten." 
 
 " I think if I practise every day I 
 might gather myself a little together. I 
 shall not be steady, of course," she 
 added, regretfully, "but still, there seems
 
 242 DRIVES AND PUTS 
 
 to be no one else to step into the 
 breach." 
 
 The club fairly seethed with excitement 
 when it became known that Mrs. McGee 
 had applied for the vacant place on the 
 team. Her three qualifying scores made 
 the golf committee open their eyes. 
 
 "Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, and ninety- 
 seven," said Woolsey Wimbleton, with a 
 low whistle, "and duly authenticated by 
 one of her bitterest enemies. She is in a 
 class by herself, there's no doubt about 
 that. What a martyrdom it must have 
 been all these years to sit quietly by tend- 
 ing one baby after another, when she knew 
 she could play like this ! By Jove, I 
 couldn't have done it ! " 
 
 "Why! Woolsey has a heart," said 
 Blissa, turning to Mrs. Van Pelt with 
 exaggerated surprise. 
 
 When the "Mariposas" went home 
 with a score of twenty-two to ten against 
 them, Sunnyside was satisfied. Two or 
 three of the men stood around the club- 
 house waiting for their traps. 
 
 "I tell you," exclaimed "The Cat,"
 
 AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY 243 
 
 " there may be nothing in McGee but 
 golf, but when it comes to his wife, it is 
 different." His heavy face looked heavier 
 than ever, as he gazed absently down at 
 his bristling caddy-bag. " I may have some 
 sort of scheme in the Fall that I can put 
 that handsome dummy on to. He can't 
 make a fizzle of it with me to back him," 
 and then he purred with satisfied pride. 
 
 The next year "The Cat" prospered 
 even more than of old, and in the success 
 of " the scheme," he found that he reaped 
 almost as much satisfaction from having put 
 that " handsome dummy " on his feet as he 
 did from the more substantial results, but 
 perhaps his greatest satisfaction lay in the 
 changing colours of the ring Blissa wore, 
 and the growth of " the house on the hill." 
 
 As for the doctor, he lost interest in 
 golf after little Ethel died, and strangers, 
 catching glimpses of his deep-set eyes and 
 silvered hair, asked who he was, and 
 women called him "interesting." 
 
 THE END.
 
 SELECTIONS FROM 
 
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 Selections from 
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 An Enemy to the King. (Twentieth Thousand.) 
 
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 LIST OF FICTION. 
 
 A Gentleman Player. 
 
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 of the pomegranate blossom, and smell the perfume of the grapes growing on the hill- 
 sides. It is a story of deep and passionate heart interests, of fierce loves and fiercer 
 hates, of undisciplined natures that work out their own bitter destiny of woe. There 
 has hardly been a finer piece of portraiture than that of the child Ard'uina, the child 
 of a sickly and unloved mother and a cruel and vindictive father, a morbid, queer, 
 lonely little creature, who is left to grow up without love or training of any kind." New 
 Or leant Picayune. 
 
 Lally of the Brigade. 
 
 A Romance of the Irish Brigade in France during 
 the Time of Louis the Fourteenth. By L. MCMANUS, 
 author of "The Silk of the Kine," "The Red Star," 
 etc. Illustrated. 
 i vol., lib. I2mo, cloth, 250 pages . . $1.25 
 
 The scene of this romance is partly at the siege of Crimona (held 
 by the troops of Louis XIV.) by the Austrian forces under Prince 
 Eugene. During the siege the famous Irish Brigade renders valiant 
 service, and the hero a dashing young Irishman is in the thick 
 of the fighting. He is also able to give efficient service in unravelling 
 a political intrigue, in which the love affairs of the hero and the 
 heroine are interwoven. 
 
 Sons of Adversity. 
 
 A Romance of Queen Elizabeth's Time. By L. 
 COPE CORNFORD, author of " Captain Jacobus," etc. 
 Illustrated by J. W. Kennedy. 
 i vol., lib. I2mo, cloth . . . . $1.25 
 
 " A tale of adventure on land and sea at the time when Protestant England and 
 Catholic Spain were struggling for naval supremacy. Spanish conspiracies against 
 the peace of good Queen Bess, a vivid description of the raise of the Spanish siege of 
 Leyden by the combined Dutch and English forces, sea fights, the recovery of stolen 
 treasure, are all skilfully woven elements in a plot of unusual strength." Pittsbure 
 Bulletin.
 
 12 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY S 
 
 Mademoiselle de Berny. 
 
 A Story of Valley Forge. By PAULINE BRADFORD 
 MACKIE. With five full-page photogravures from 
 drawings by Frank T. Merrill. 
 
 Printed on deckle-edged paper, with gilt top, and 
 bound in cloth. 272 pages . . . $1.50 
 
 " The charm of ' Mademoiselle de Berny ' lies in its singular sweetness." 
 Boston Herald. 
 
 " One of the very few choice American historical stories." Boston Transcript. 
 
 " Real romance . . . admirably written." Washington Post. 
 
 " A stirring romance, full of life and action from start to finish." Toledo Daily 
 Blade. 
 
 " Of the many romances in which Washington is made to figure, this is one of the 
 most fascinating, one of the best." Boston Courier. 
 
 Ye Lyttle Salem Maide. 
 
 A Story of Witchcraft. By PAULINE BRADFORD 
 MACKIE, with four full-page photogravures from draw- 
 ings by E. W. D. Hamilton. 
 
 Printed on deckle-edged paper, with gilt top, and 
 bound in cloth. 321 pages . . . $1.50 
 
 A tale of the days of the reign of superstition in New England, 
 and of a brave " lyttle maide," of Salem Town, whose faith and hope 
 and unyielding adherence to her word of honor form the basis of a 
 most attractive story. Several historical characters are introduced, 
 including the Rev. Cotton Mather and Governor and Lady Phipps, 
 and a very convincing picture is drawn of Puritan life during the latter 
 part of the seventeenth century. An especial interest is added to the 
 book by the illustrations, reproduced by the photogravure process 
 from originals by E. W. D. Hamilton. 
 
 In Guiana Wilds. 
 
 A Study of Two Women. By JAMES RODWAY, 
 author of " In the Guiana Forest," etc. Illustrated. 
 i vol., library I2mo, cloth, decorative cover, 250 
 pages ........ $1.25 
 
 " In Guiana Wilds " may be described as an ethnological romance. 
 A typical young Scotchman becomes, by the force of circumstances, 
 decivilized, and mates with a native woman. 
 
 It is a psychological study of great power and ability.
 
 LIST OF FICTION. 13 
 
 Vivian of Virginia. 
 
 Being the Memoirs of Our First Rebellion, by John 
 Vivian, Esq., of Middle Plantation, Virginia. By HUL- 
 BERT FULLER. With ten full-page illustrations by 
 Frank T. Merrill. 
 
 i vol., library I2mo, cloth, gilt top, deckle-edge 
 paper ....... $1.50 
 
 " A stirring and accurate account of the famous Bacon rebellion." Los A ngeles 
 Sunday Times. 
 
 " We shall have to search far to find a better colonial story than this." Denver 
 Republican. 
 
 " A well-conceived, well-plotted romance, full of life and adventure." Chicago 
 Inter-Ocean. 
 
 " A story abounding in exciting incidents and well-told conversations." Boston 
 Journal. 
 
 " Mr. Fuller will find a large circle of readers for his romance who will not be dis- 
 appointed in their pleasant expectations." Boston Transcript. 
 
 " Instead of using history as a background for the exploits of the hero, the author 
 used the hero to bring out history and the interesting events of those early days in 
 Virginia. The author has preserved the language and customs of the times admir- 
 ably." Philadelphia Telegram. 
 
 The Gray House of the Quarries. 
 
 By MARY HARRIOTT NORRIS. With a frontispiece 
 etching by Edmund H. Garrett. 
 i vol., 8vo, cloth, 500 pages . . . $1.50 
 
 " The peculiar genre, for which, in a literary sense, all must acknowledge obliga- 
 tion to the author of a new type, is the Dutch - American species. The church-goings, 
 the courtings, the pleasures and sorrows of a primitive people, their lives and deaths, 
 weddings, suicides, births and burials, are Rembrandt and Rubens pictures on a fresh 
 canvas." Boston Transcript. 
 
 " The fine ideal of womanhood in a person never once physically described will 
 gratify the highest tone of the period, and is an ennobling conception." Time and 
 The Hour, Boston.
 
 A 000 051 496 8 
 
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