Rupert Hughes

“ Everybody knew that it was an accident, and yet none could resist the beauty of the drive. The Father, before he thought of it, shook the Duffer by the hand, the Girl crowed with joy, and even the Champion started after the white hawk's flight in æsthetic homage. Then he returned to his senses and was madder than ever, and darted on ahead. The caddies hurried after him and the Father turned back to the club house to lose what remnant of a reputation for veracity his golf-stories had left him by recounting the Duffer's drive. ”

“ Wickham's foozles grew more and more appalling until he passed the fifth hole. While a tee had been placed for women more advantageously, the sixth teeing ground for men was a little platform on the side of a steep hill. It was no bigger than a dinner table, and the rules of the course demanded a long drive across a strip of rough land and a winding gully, on to a fair green that seemed to the novice as far away as the fields of Elysium. ”

“ We are most often more sensitive of our sportsmanship than of our intellects or our more serious virtues. Here were three people out for a little junket, and the ragged young man working in a near-by field stopped whistling to covet their luxury and their enjoyment, though one of the envied trio, the man in the scarlet sweater, was at best only happy with a malicious glee in a rival's misery; the rival in dark blue was humiliated to the point of suicide, and the girl in the brave pink coat was sorrowful to the brink of tears! ”

“ Being a woman, and having resolved upon a plan, she ignored the painfulness of the means to her end, and, with the mercilessness of the gentler sex, commanded Creech not only to relinquish his claim to be her opponent in the game, but even to coach his deadly rival! Creech was almost prostrated with rage, but she fastened such a despotic look on him that he acquiesced. Wickham was angry, too, because Creech insisted on tagging along. The Father accompanied them to the first tee, irate because his daughter had not ignored the Duffer ”

“ At the seventh tee, Jean, after making a fine far drive—though somewhat too much "heeled" for her liking—paused to say to the Duffer:
"You mustn't drive into that field on the right, you know. That's the field owned by the old brute that quarreled with the club." Then she hurried on with her caddie.
Being thus warned, the Duffer, of course, drove the ball straight into the forbidden field. Whereupon Creech giggled and informed Wickham that he lost the ball, the stroke and the distance. ”

“ The man who can laugh with the world when the world is laughing at him bids fair to conquer it.
The Girl liked the Duffer both for the fact and the manner of his laugh. She felt that he would be a very good fellow—away from the links.
When, a few moments later, the founder of the club, who was also the Girl's old Scottish father, strolled up, arm in arm with the Champion of the Club, who was also the Girl's devoted admirer, she introduced the Duffer to them. The Father held golf too sacred to be able to smile on a heathen, so he was blunt to the point of gruffness ”

“ If a man has stature and shoulders, a sense of the ridiculous and a quick temper, what more can a woman ask?
The Girl decided at once that the Duffer was worth while. She planned to ask him to call when she knew him better. He took care that the acquaintance should ripen, and before long he was asked to call. Which he did. Early and often.
The friendship of the two flourished so famously that Wickham grew rash enough to ask to play golf with her. ”

“ Once more he had the indescribable humiliation of being beaten by a woman—such a slip of a girl, too!—and the one girl in the world to whom he would fain appear all-powerful, all-skilful. He could laugh at his first foozles, but the mirth was soon a sorry cackle ”

“ But Wickham's caddie, who, strangely enough, had a certain liking for the Duffer, in spite of his bad play, sidled up and said:
"Say, boss, I'll git de ball fur ye. It's agin de rules for us fellers to go in de field, but de old man'll never know de difference." ”

“ De old man must 'a' put him dere to keep us kids out."
Creech grew very solemn suddenly, and said, "I hope that fence is strong."
But Wickham only smote the other ball he had teed. He foozled, as usual, and made a pathetically short drive. He hacked and scooped the ball doggedly along little by little. His temper was growing ugly now, and it only needed one more straw of sarcasm from Creech to break down his self-control. This the unwitting Creech speedily produced; and he was startled to see the meek and lowly Duffer turning on him with sudden fury. ”