A Damsel in Distress

ny external influence to keep him from it. There is a story, with an excellent moral lesson, of a golfer whose wife had determined to leave him for ever. "Will nothing alter your decis

bound to suffer if he neglected to keep himself up to the mark. His first act on arriving at Belpher village had been to ascertain whether th

ged the same long young man whom, a couple of days earlier, he had seen wriggle out from underneath the same machine. It was Reggie Byng's habit also not to allow anything, even love, to interfere with

before somewhere at some time or other, and Reggie had the pleasing disposition which cau

lo! Hullo!"

ning," sa

g for s

N

then? Shall we

ight

progress of events within the castle walls; but it is a peculiarity of golf, as of love, that it temporarily changes the natures of its victims; and Reggie, a confirmed babbler off the links, became while in action a stern, silent, intent person, his whole being centred

usly, as George holed his eighteenth putt from a distance

stly. "Sometimes I slice as if I were cutt

een anything fruitier than the way you got out of the bunker at the fifteenth. It reminded me of a mat

rop you

e. "If it's not taki

ng at Belp

rhaps you'd care to come in

heme," agr

hese minutes, in the intervals of eluding carts and foiling the apparently suicidal intentions of some stray

ten thought it would be a rather sound scheme to settle down in this sort of shanty and keep chickens and grow a honey coloured bea

irting seltzer into

n and cooks for me. The

aused him to look up. Reggie By

. Platt! Then you

al to the intellectual pre

Cha

bout. The mater was telling me onl

e a row

? At the castle, I mean. I don't want to seem to be discussing your private affairs, and all that sort of thing, but what I mean is... Well, you don't expect you can come charging in the way you have without touching the family on the raw a bit. The daughter of the

ve her after their one meeting was a different thing altogether. That was perfectly natural and in order. But th

he cried. "What on

lderment equa

urely isn't news to you? She must

? Am I go

low couldn't go on talking about his iron-shots after this just as if nothing had happened. This was the time for the laying down of cards, the opening of hearts. "I say,

, if that'll

there's nobody I think a more corking sportsman than Maud, if you know what I mean, but-this is where the catch comes in-I'm most frightfully in love with somebody else. Hopeless, and all that sort of thing, but still there it is. And all the while the mater behind me with a bradawl, sicking me on

enly happiness which this young man's revelations had brought upon him. The whole world seemed different. Wings seemed to s

hisky and soda. It was the

icult to say anything. Reggie

e seems to sort of gaze through me, don't you know. She kind of looks at me as if I were more to be pitied than censured, but as if she thoug

ness, found a pleasure in enc

hat you ought

id Reggie

shook h

n't know,

dash it!" s

e pon

you're lucky or you're not. Look at me, for instance. W

you mean. At least, w

he first time. It's a

thing anyo

way," said Reggie. "She's always tripping

ht, of

hen we do meet, I can't t

t's

hen I'm with her-I don't know. It's rum!" He drained his glass and rose. "Well, I suppo

Any time

, so

od-

e some newly-created thing. Everything around him and everything he did had taken on a strange and novel interest. He seemed to notice the ticking

of a conjuring trick, "if I gave her a flower or two every now and then

ch had come to him was accompanied by a strange inability to attend to other peop

ying," said Reggie.

dle

od-

p-p

resently came the nois

urned to h

tly he was aware of a small boy standing beside him-a golden-haired boy with blue eyes, who wore the uniform of a page. He came out of his trance. This, he

said th

phonso!" s

's not A

ery careful or

for yer. Fro

-ale in the kitchen," said the gr

" said the