Holworthy Hall

“ I feel like a licked postage stamp!"
"Somebody in the house feels happy, anyway," said Sewall, as they went quietly out into the dark hall. Seemingly from a great distance, the strains of familiar music came to them, the music of a stringed instrument, and the sound of a joyful voice, singing hesitantly but firmly: "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down." The conspirators halted, and glared at each other through the darkness.
"For the love of Mike!" whispered Phillips, who knew what he was talking about. "We've got to look out for ourselves! It's Pepper!" ”

“ Mix looked puzzled; he thought she had a cold. But he said no more; he went home to his bachelor apartment, and after he had helped himself to three full fingers of meditation, together with a little seltzer, he smiled faintly, and told himself that there was no use in debating the point––a man with brains is predestined to make progress. But he couldn’t help reflecting that now, more than ever, if any echo of his New York escapades, or any rumour of his guarded habits got to Mirabelle’s ears––or, for that matter, to anybody’s ears at all––his dreams would float away in vapour. ”

“ Besides, I don't call it exactly selling when you take a man that used to belong sell to your same society twenty years ago out to Garden City, and shoot a game of golf with him, and then pry loose an order. You mustn't be disappointed when you begin to fall down, Richard. And I'd rather lose the order, any time, than have you make a sale based on anything in the world but the quality of the goods. In fact, I guess we'll have to make it a rule that when you have to play games with a man to get his business, that don't count on your sheet. ”

“ Now there was a curious bipartite personality in James Pepper McHenry. A ruthless joker, a keen and biting satirist, a man of perpetual humor, he was at the same time a very sympathetic listener when sympathy was needed; and his power of getting right to the heart of the trouble was almost uncanny. Spinden knew of old that he could confide in McHenry.
"I've known for a long time that you weren't right," said Pepper gently. "You're all but fired from the baseball squad, and you're only about half a D from a row with the office, and you're acting like a perfect idiot! ”

“ Seen from the elevation of the veranda, the course is beautiful rather than suggestive of good golf; it presents the cultivated appearance of a millionaire's lawn, landscaped by the king of expert gardeners. Trees by Corot and brooks by Inness lie in a background of charming composition; vast reaches of lawn in the middle distance temper the glare of sunlight; far to the east a Maxfield Parrish harbor sleeps peacefully beneath a blanket of clouds by Elmer Garnsey. The sheer sweep of turf is nowhere marred by unsightly sand-pits; the ungainly cop-bunker is visible not at all. ”

“ Mr. Mott flushed, and jabbed again. He lifted himself erect, and poured out into the world the offscourings of his innermost soul. He reviled himself, the Silver King golf-ball, the Vaile putter, the greenskeeper, the turf, the contour of the land, the Scotch who had invented the game, and the promoters who had organized the club. As an afterthought, he hurled the putter into a convenient hazard, and, seizing the first weapon which came to hand,—a niblick,—struck so fair and true that the ball went down for a six, one over par. ”

“ Why—Hargrave's heart stopped beating—he wouldn't be champion!
With a final hum, which was somehow different from those that had preceded it. the gallery faded from his consciousness. Stoddard was as though he had never existed. Hargrave bent over the putter, and a curious echo rang rot unpleasantly in his ears. He saw a white ball in the sunlight, a stretch of lawn, a zinc-lined hole in shadow. There was no longer an objective world in which he lived; there were no longer men and women. He himself was not body. ”

“ What good is a defense like a brick wall if there isn't a man in the backfield who doesn't shut his eyes when he hits the line? Two lickings in succession—and we rushed the ball less than fifty yards altogether! Unless something's done about it now, we've as much chance at New Haven as a snowball will have by and by. If we couldn't beat 'em when we had Bull Blanding to take the ball, what chance have we got with that dainty, delicate bunch of backs this year? ”

“ Then, suddenly, there were loud shouts for Henry and Anna, and they were seized and dragged to the top of the centre aisle. Standish swung into the Mendelssohn Wedding March, and through a haze of rose-leaf confetti and paper streamers, the two Devereuxs were forced down to the orchestra-pit. The house 128 was on its feet to them, and Anna, half-laughing, half-crying with happiness, was sorting confetti out of her hair when Standish clambered up on the stage, and waved for silence. ”

“ McHenry the Deep, McHenry the Clever, McHenry who had got himself on the class team by sheer nerve and strategy, stumbled back until he stood between the goal-posts. Only a few yards ahead of him he saw the lines forming. Out of the sky he saw that dirty yellow bird soaring, soaring ... he was perfectly conscious that Billy Whittemore was running towards him, screaming as he ran. Also a few thousand seniors, yelling fiendishly as they ran! And countless millions of lunatics ranged alongside the field—all yelling fiendishly! ”

“ Cunningham's smile was deprecatory. “I'm not altogether convinced,” he said, “that it's a good thing for him, or for any one else. Consider the proposition in general—go to all four corners of it. When a man's married, he's got to give up nine-tenths of his income, most of his time, practically all of his bachelor friends, absolutely all of his woman friends. And yet you speak of the partnership of marriage! It isn't a partnership—it's a stock corporation, with the woman preferred, and the husband common. It's the man who makes all the sacrifices. He's the one who mortgages his future. ”

“ McHenry sat down to meditate.
"You fellows never take into consideration," he said, "the fact that it's ridiculously easy to make money. Why, you can make it out of almost anything."
"Excuse me, Pepper, but you're raving," yawned Sewall.
"No, I'm not. Why—why, a man with any brains can make money selling collar buttons."
"You couldn't make thirty cents selling collar buttons," scoffed Spinden. "Let's eat."
"On the whole," mused Pepper, "that's rather clever. It certainly is. There's real money in it. I suppose I might as well make six hundred in collar buttons as in anything else." ”

“ Casting about him for a moment, he observed that the lattice of the side porch ran within a few feet of her window.
"I'm coming up, Eleanor."
"Oh—you mustn't!"
He tested the lattice with his full weight, and, finding that it held, scrambled nimbly to the top, whence he could touch his lady's hand, if not her lips. She watched him fearfully—and stretched down her hand. Accepting the alternative, he kissed it thoroughly.
"Not a soul in sight," he whispered. "Good-by, Eleanor." ”

“ By the time the baseball team had played its first two games, Spinden was on the ragged edge of probation, hovering pitiably on the verge of the second nine, in grave disrepute with his fellows, and of practically no use to himself or anybody else. And because Spinden was really a valuable member of society, the class wanted to know what was the matter with him; and because there was only one emissary who could handle a situation as delicate as that of assaulting a man's disposition, McHenry was naturally selected to do the talking. ”

“ Meredith nodded appreciatively, and took his putter. Miss Winsted was again behind him, and he felt her presence, and welcomed it. She'd taken a lesson, had she? She was adopting the game because he loved it, was she? He owed her something for that—something more than ordinary gratitude. And now that she had come to share his laurels with him, she should see at least that golf is more than a simple game played for prizes; she should see that it is a cross-section of life, played for whatever reward is decreed. ”