II
There are many kinds of golfer, and there are many kinds of girl, but there are only two kinds of girl with whom it is possible to play golf. One is the beginner and the other is the expert.
The beginner is wholly irresponsible. Let us imagine that she is taken out in a “mixed” foursome. She refers to her clubs as “sticks,” or even “poles.” She declines the services of a caddie, with a little scream of apprehension at the very idea of such publicity. For the same reason she refuses to drive her ball from the tee if any one is “looking.” Indeed, she has been known to implore her partner to turn even his sympathetic back during that performance. This excessive shyness is maintained all the way to the first hole, and, unless carefully watched, she will arrive at the green, ball in hand, having been unable to endure the critical gaze of two men at least a hundred and fifty yards away, who she feels convinced are laughing at her.
Presently she feels more comfortable. A long drive by her partner elicits a little shriek of astonished admiration, which flatters his manly vanity, and goes far to mitigate the handicap of her assistance. She at once begins to imitate his stance and swing, straddles well over the ball, shuts both eyes, gives a mighty swipe, and usually falls down, the necessity of “tackety shoon” being as yet unrevealed to her. On she goes, perfectly at her ease now, though a little hot and flustered, babbling incessantly during the stroke, regardless of the sinister frowns of the man who is endeavouring to play it. Should she miss the ball altogether, she is moved to unnecessary mirth; should she by any chance hit it out of sight, say over a sand-hill, she scampers up the slope after it at a run, and announces its discovery at the top of her voice, upsetting the nerves of all the old gentlemen within earshot. On the green her actions are as characteristic as ever. In running the ball up to the hole she either hits the ground behind it and sends it six inches, or plays a shot which necessitates the departure of her long-suffering partner, niblick in hand and scarlet in the face, to an adjacent bunker. Short putts she invariably holes out by an ingenious and unblushing push-stroke, which no one has the heart to question or the courage to criticise. So the game proceeds. It is not golf, but then you never expected it to be. It is another game, even older, and even better.
After a few such rounds as this the dread seriousness of the game descends upon her, and she loses some of her charm. She never speaks, for she knows now that there is a rule on the subject. Her irresponsible gaiety is gone; she is actually nervous; and after missing an easy stroke (which she does quite as frequently as before), she looks piteously at her partner, and even sighs enviously as the lady on the other side, whom she has hitherto regarded as a mere example of how clothes should not be worn, plays a perfect approach out of a bad lie. In short, she has reverted to the status of the ordinary duffer, and as such she ceases to be anything but a common nuisance—unless, of course, sir, you take a special interest in her, in which case you will find her quite as attractive, and infinitely less exhausting, over a quiet game of croquet or spilikins.
But when—or rather if—she attains to the degree of a real golfer; if she can drive off before a crowd without giggling or blushing, and can be trusted not to shut her eyes when taking a full swing,—then she is indeed a pearl of price, for she is now a congenial companion, from the golfing as well as the other point of view. She is neither childishly frivolous nor grimly determined. She looks upon golf neither as a glorified form of croquet nor as woman’s one mission in life. Behold her as she walks across the links to begin her morning round. She calls up her favourite caddie with a little nod of her head, and gives you a cheery good-morning when she finds you waiting at the first tee. (A pretty girl-golfer is about as nearly perfect as a woman can be, but even that cannot make her punctual.) She is neatly turned out: she has abandoned kid boots with high heels, and wears trim shoes with plenty of nails in them. Her head is usually bare, or perhaps she wears a motor-veil tied under her chin; at any rate, the unstable edifice of former days no longer flaps in the breeze and obscures her vision. She is independent too. She does not take the first club the caddie offers: she chooses her own, and rates the boy for not having cleaned it better. No longer does she put her ball in her pocket for fear of keeping back the green; on the contrary, she drives repeatedly (and I am afraid purposely) into a steady-going foursome in front. It is useless to remind her of a by-law which says that ladies must invariably give way to gentlemen and allow them to pass.
“Real gentlemen,” she remarks, “would invariably give way to ladies and allow them to pass.” And her iron-shot bumps past the head of an octogenarian who is trying to hole out a long putt on the distant green.
To look at her now you would never guess that she was once a shrinking débutante, a hewer of turf, and a drawer of water from the eyes of the green-keeper. Her putting is still erratic, and she is rather helpless in heavy sand; but, given a clean lie and a fair stance, she will handle her light clubs to some purpose, and her swing is a “sicht for sair een.” If you are at all off your game she will beat you; therefore it is advisable to offer her points before beginning the match, not so much because she needs them as to preserve your masculine self-respect in the event of a “regrettable incident.”
Miss Elsie Innes combined all the virtues of the girl-golfer in her own graceful young body. Though she had “filled out” considerably since we last saw her, she was anything but a hobnailed, masculine woman. She was neither heavily built nor muscular; she looked almost too fragile to play at all. But she handled her light clubs with a suppleness and dexterity usually given only to a schoolboy of fourteen, and the length of her drive was amazing. She was always graceful, always cool, and, as Pip once noted to himself, “never got either hot or hairy.”
After their first meeting at Raven’s cottage Pip and Elsie saw each other constantly. They played a round of golf every day, usually between tea and dinner, the hour when the ardent male golfer relaxes from his noonday strenuousness and turns to thoughts of mixed foursomes. Usually Pip and Elsie played Mr. and Mrs. Raven. Raven was a far better golfer than Pip, but then Elsie was very much the superior of Mrs. Raven, which made matters even. Many were the battles that raged between the two couples. At first victory favoured the married pair. Raven, besides being a scratch golfer, was a good general, and his unruffled coolness and unerring advice made the most of his wife’s limited powers. Pip and Elsie, on the other hand, did not “combine” well. Elsie, who (strictly between ourselves) fancied her golf not a little, insisted on dictating the line of action to be followed on each occasion, and more than once told Pip what club to use. Pip, though relatively her inferior, declined at first to be trampled upon by a female, even a high-spirited goddess with fair hair and a swing like an archangel. But few men in Pip’s condition argue the point long: after a brief struggle to assert the predominance of man he subsided completely, and, as he thought, rather diplomatically. There he was wrong. The sage of antiquity who composed the uncomplimentary proverb about “a woman, a dog, and a walnut tree” knew something of life, and the course of Pip’s true love might have run a good deal smoother if he had put down his masculine foot a little more frequently. However, there is no doubt that after his capitulation their golfing efforts reached a higher level than before. After a series of matches extending over a week, each side stood with three games to its credit, Pip and Elsie just managing to draw level by winning a match on the last green on Saturday evening.
Sunday golf is not encouraged in Scotland. Consequently next morning Elsie accompanied her relatives to one of the numerous places of worship in Port Allan, which ancient township possessed its full complement of Auld Licht, Established, United, and Wee Free kirks, and other homes of religious controversy. Pip stayed on the hotel veranda and smoked, watching them pass but lacking nerve to join them. He summoned up sufficient courage, however, to put in an appearance at Knocknaha during the afternoon. He was even more silent than usual, though he made a hearty tea.
After that meal he invited Elsie to come for a walk with him. She consented, and they set off together, followed by the amused glances of Mr. and Mrs. Raven.
It was a glorious August afternoon. The North Sea, blue and placid, lapped gently against the red cliffs, or ran with a slow hiss up the slope of yellow sand which bordered the Links of Eric. There was hardly any wind—just enough, in fact, to keep the air clear; and Pip and Elsie, as they lounged luxuriously in a hollow at the top of a sand-hill,—their walk had been strictly limited to a Sabbath day’s journey,—could see the smoke of a steam-trawler on the horizon though they could not see the ship herself.
“This is nice,” murmured Elsie luxuriantly, as she arranged her holland skirt to cover up as much of her tan boots as possible—her Sunday frock had found its way back to her wardrobe soon after church. “Sunday really does feel like a day of rest if one plays golf all the week.”
“Talking of golf,” said Pip, “you haven’t played me yet.”
“I’ve played with you all the week,” replied Elsie.
“With me, not against me,” said Pip.
“Oh, I see. All right; I’ll play with Raven to-morrow against you and Ethel. We shall beat you horribly, though.”
Elsie was in a very perverse mood.
“Yes, but I want a single—a match,” explained Pip.
“Oh!” said Elsie.
There was a pause. Pip lit his pipe, which had somehow gone out, and continued,—
“Shall we say to-morrow morning?”
“Afraid not,” said Elsie. “I rather think I promised to play one of the men in the hotel.”
This was not strictly true, but Elsie was in a curious frame of mind that evening. There was no reason why she should not have played Pip his match, nor was she particularly averse to doing so. But some flash of feminine intuition, infallible as ever, was unconsciously keeping her in the defensive attitude natural to women in such cases.
“Is it Anstruther?” inquired Pip.
“Yes,” said Elsie rashly.
“In that case your match is off, for he has had a wire, and must go to-morrow morning.”
“It’s not Mr. Anstruther,” said Elsie. “I had forgotten he was going away.” (This was strictly true.)
“Is it Gaythorne?” asked Pip.
Elsie regarded him covertly, through conveniently long lashes. She suspected another trap.
“No,” she said at last.
“That’s queer,” remarked Pip meditatively. “He was saying only last night that he expected to play you to-morrow morning.”
Elsie, who had fallen into the not uncommon error of underrating her adversary, was for the moment quite flabbergasted by this bold stroke. Then, quickly noting the joint in her opponent’s harness, she interposed swiftly,—
“Why did you ask me to play with you, then?”
“I didn’t think you ought to play with him,” said Pip coolly. “He’s an utter outsider.”
“I shall play with whom I like,” said Elsie hotly.
“All right,” said Pip; “I’ll tell him. What time do you want him to be down at the tee?”
Elsie, though not inexperienced in the management of young men, fairly gasped for breath. This slow-speaking, serious youth would, unless she could speedily extricate herself, either compel her to acknowledge herself defeated or else force her into an unpremeditated golf-match with a comparative stranger.
“I—I tell you I don’t want to play with Mr. Gaythorne,” she said.
“Oh, sorry!” replied Pip; “I thought you said you did. Very well, I’ll tell him not to come, and you can play me instead.”
Now, it is obviously unwise to continue to assert to a second party that you have a previous engagement with a third party when you have not, especially when your knowledge is shared by the second party. So Elsie did the only possible thing, and laughed.
“All right, Pip,” she said; “I’ll play you. Be down at the tee early and we’ll get off before the rush begins. As it is, I shall be driven into all the time, playing with a duffer!”
Pip, quite unmoved, parried this insult with another.
“Right-o,” he said. “What shall I give you—a half?”
Elsie smiled indulgently.
“As a favour,” she replied, “and to preserve your masculine pride, I will play you level. Otherwise——”
Pip interrupted. He was not looking quite so serene as usual, and he puffed almost nervously at his pipe.
“What shall we play for?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“In a match,” he explained, “it is usual to play for some small stake—a ball, or a bottle of——”
“Nonsense!” said Elsie decidedly.
“Not a bit; it’s often done,” said Pip. “What shall we play for?”
“We shall play for love.”
“Love? Right!”
There was an awkward pause. Technical terms lead one into such pitfalls. Elsie felt herself beginning to turn pink. Pip, who might have smoothed the situation over, made it worse by saying,—
“So it’s to be a love-match?”
There was no mistaking Elsie’s colour now. A blush ran flaming over her face in a great scarlet wave. But Pip proceeded quite calmly,—
“That’s just what I want it to be. I’m glad you said that, though of course you didn’t mean it in that way. You are a good golfer. On your day you can get round in, say, ninety. I am a rotter. I have only twice got round under a hundred. If I play you level to-morrow and beat you, will you—marry me?”
“Pip!”
Elsie was sincere enough now. She was genuinely astounded. She knew Pip for a man of blunt speech and direct methods, but she had hardly been prepared for this. She merely turned from red to white, and repeated her astonished cry,—
“Pip!”
Pip continued, quite coolly now,—
“Yes, I mean it. I have been in love with you from the first moment I saw you, the afternoon that I took you to the Blanes’ garden-party. You remember?” The girl nodded gravely. “I was bowled over then, and I’ve worshipped you ever since. I suppose you knew that? Women are always said to know these things. Did you know?”
This was a long speech for Pip, but it drew no answer from Elsie.
“Did you know?” he repeated gently.
Elsie plucked a few bents from the sand around her and began to plait them with great care.
“Did you know?” asked Pip for the third time.
Elsie answered, without raising her eyes—
“Yes—at least, lately. But you never gave yourself away, Pip.”
“I know that. I rather prided myself on it. I should have asked you long ago, only after the Governor’s death I had to—work for a living. It’s only recently I have become a man with money. Besides, I think these things ought to be kept sacred, just between—between the two, you know. I haven’t a very high opinion of myself, but I do think I can keep a secret. I wasn’t going to have you talked about, even by friends. However”—he brought his gaze back from the distant horizon with an effort—“we are wandering from the point. Will you play me a match, Elsie,—a love-match?”
Elsie raised her eyes for the first time.
“Pip, don’t be absurd!”
“Absurd? Not a bit. I think it’s a jolly sensible notion. I simply can’t talk the sort of rot that men in love are supposed to talk—it isn’t in me. All I can do is to make you a fair offer like this—a sort of challenge to single combat, you know. If I win, you give in to me; if you win, well, I shall have to chuck it, that’s all.”
“But Pip,” said Elsie, “supposing I....”
Then she checked herself suddenly, leaving Pip to wonder what she had meant to say. He himself could see no flaw in the scheme. His own natural modesty prevented him from believing that Elsie, glorious creature, could ever desire to take him of her own free will, and consequently his simple mind had reverted to the primitive notion, inherent in most men, of marriage by conquest. His challenge to a golf-match struck him as an eminently sporting offer.
“I figured it out this way,” he went on after a pause. “I said to myself, ‘She will never marry me simply for the asking, of course’; so—what did you say?”
“Nothing.” Elsie had suddenly ceased plaiting and parted her lips.
“So,” continued Pip, “I said, ‘The only way to make her give in will be to get the better of her in something—to show superiority over her in some way. It will be no use my trying to persuade her by arguments. I’m slow of speech, especially with women, and Elsie would simply talk me downstairs and into the street in about two minutes. A girl like her won’t surrender without a struggle. Quite right too. I shall have to try something else. It mustn’t be too one-sided either way, for if it’s in her favour I shall lose, and if it’s in mine she won’t accept. It must be a fair match.’”
And so he continued, simply, honestly, laying bare to her all the mighty scheme whereby he proposed to overcome her stubborn resistance. He had first thought, he told her, of a single-wicket cricket-match, but had abandoned the project as being too greatly in his favour. “You keep a very straight bat for a girl,” he said, “but you can never resist my slow curly one, that looks as if it were going to pitch outside the off stump, and doesn’t. I know your weaknesses, you see,” he added with a friendly smile.
“Yes, Pip,” said Elsie, in a rather subdued tone, “some of them.”
Pip then proceeded to enumerate the other tests of skill that had occurred to him. “I thought of croquet,” he said, “but really croquet is such d—Well, anyhow, I don’t think croquet would have done. Billiards is too fluky. Chess is piffle. There are lots of other games, but you are so—so weak!” (Elsie’s slight frame stiffened indignantly at this.) “Then I thought of the golf-match, and I saw at once that that was the ticket. So I packed up my bag and wired for rooms at the hotel here, and have been waiting for you to arrive ever since the first of August.”
There was a pause—a long pause. Elsie was thinking—of what, she hardly knew. Pip was watching her, anxious to see how she received his great idea. Presently he continued,—
“Of course the golf-match is all in your favour. The chances are about three to one on your winning.”
Suddenly Elsie flared up with a curious little spirit of anger. Her mind, highly trained though it was in these matters, could not quite appreciate Pip’s Quixotic consideration for an opponent.
“Pip,” she said, “I don’t believe you want to win! The whole thing is simply a joke on your part—your idea of a joke. I don’t think it’s a very nice one: you know you can’t beat me. If you really want to marry me you wouldn’t—”
“I shall beat you all right,” said Pip simply.
“Why?”
“I know I shall, that’s all.”
“Why?”
“Because I know.”
A new idea occurred to Elsie.
“You dare to insinuate,” she said, “that I would—would purposely let you—”
“Should I want to marry a girl of that sort?” asked Pip gravely.
Elsie softened again at this genuine compliment, but she still felt rather doubtful as to whether this extraordinary young man really and truly believed that she was to be won, and won only, by being beaten in a golf-match. In any case the situation was becoming difficult. She began to dust the sand from her skirt and to make other preparations for departure. Pip regarded her with some concern.
“You’re not going yet, are you?” he said.
“Yes. It’s getting late.”
“Well, will you play me?”
“On those terms?”
“Yes.”
“Of course not, Pip. You’re not serious.”
Pip leaned forward, and put his hand on her arm. She had half risen, but she now found herself sitting down again, rather astonished and rebellious, listening to what he was saying.
“Elsie, what is the date to-morrow?”
“I don’t know,” petulantly. “Girls never know dates.”
“I forgot that. Well, it is the fourteenth of August. Do you know what is going to happen at Old Trafford to-morrow?”
“Why—the Australians! Fancy forgetting a Test Match! That comes of playing golf all day. But, Pip,”—she stared at him in dismayed surprise,—“why aren’t you there? Surely you were chosen?”
“Yes, I was chosen.”
“Then, why aren’t you there?”
“Because I’m here.”
“But, Pip, you ought to be playing cricket.”
“I prefer to play golf.”
“But it’s a Test Match.”
“I’m going to play in a Test Match of my own—here.”
Elsie was silent again, and gazed at him, open-eyed. Pip saw that he had struck the right note.
“I gave up the cricket-match to play with you,” he said. “Will you play with me?”
Elsie was defenceless against this appeal. She knew, better than most girls, perhaps, what it must cost a man to decline an invitation to play for England.
“All right, Pip,” she said gently, getting up and shaking her skirt, “I’ll play you. Nine o’clock to-morrow morning. I shall beat you, though,” she added.
Pip said nothing. It is always politic to make a virtue of necessity. That is why one allows a woman the last word.
They were very silent as they walked home in the twilight. Pip, having achieved the object with which he had set out, had no further remarks to make. Elsie seemed less at ease, and kept shooting half-amused, half-angry glances at the obtuse young man beside her. She objected to being treated as something between a Prehistoric Peep and a Scratch Medal.
Presently they came to Raven Innes’s cottage.
“Are you coming in, Pip?” inquired Elsie as she stood at the door.
“No, thanks. Raven would keep me up all hours, and I’m going to bed very early. Good-night.”
“Pip—” began Elsie rather unsteadily.
Pip turned quickly, and beheld her standing on the step, framed by the open doorway. The setting sun glinted on her hair, and there was a curious and unfamiliar note in her voice as she addressed him.
“Pip,” she said, “I don’t like the idea of this match. It’s—it’s contrary to Nature, somehow. Golf wasn’t intended to settle such questions.”
Pip made no reply, but gazed upon her. In matters of this kind he was not very “quick in the uptake,” as they say in Scotland. Elsie made a curious little grimace to herself, and continued—
“Pip, supposing you wanted, very much, to get something that lay across a stream which looked rather deep, would you make a jump and risk a ducking, or would you walk miles on the off-chance of finding a bridge?”
They looked at each other steadily for a minute, while Pip worked out the answer to this conundrum.
“I should probably jump,” he replied,—“that is, if—”
And then at last light seemed to break upon him. The blood surged to his brain, and he stepped forward impetuously.
“Elsie!” he cried.
But the door was shut.
“Serve him right, too!” you say. Well, perhaps; but lack of presumption is a rare and not unmanly virtue.