VI.—A FINAL ARRANGEMENT

 "Seeing that this is our last day together," began Archie—

 

"Oh, DON'T," said Myra. "I can't bear it."

 

"Seeing that this is our first day together, we might have a little tournament of some kind, followed by a small distribution of prizes. What do you think, Dahlia?"

 

"Well, I daresay I can find something."

 

"Any old thing that we don't want will do; nothing showy or expensive. Victory is its own reward."

 

"Yes, but if there IS a pot of home-made marmalade going with it," I said, "so much the better."

 

"Dahlia, earmark the marmalade for this gentleman. Now, what's it going to be? Golf, Simpson?"

 

"Why, of course," said Myra. "Hasn't he been getting it ready for days?"

 

"That will give him an unfair advantage," I pointed¹ out. "He knows every single brick on the greens."

 

"Oh, I say, there aren't any greens yet," protested Simpson. "That'll take a year or two. But I've marked out white circles and you have to get inside them."

 

"I saw him doing that," said Archie. "I was afraid he expected us to play prisoners' base with him."

 

The game fixed² upon, we proceeded to draw for partners.

 

"You'll have to play with me, Archie," said Dahlia, "because I'm no good at all."

 

"I shall have to play with Myra," I said, "because I'm no good at all."

 

"Oh, I'm very good," said Myra.

 

"That looks as though I should have to play with—" "Simpson,"

"Thomas," said Thomas and Simpson together.

"You're all giving me a lot of trouble," said Archie, putting his pencil back in his pocket. "I've just written your names out neatly³ on little bits of paper, and now they're all wasted. You'll have to stick them on yourselves so that the spectators will know who you are as you whizz past." He handed his bits of paper round and went in for his clubs.

 

It was a stroke competition, and each couple went round by itself.

Myra and I started last.

"Now we've got to win this," she said, "because we shan't play together again for a long time."

 

"That's a nice cheery thing to say to a person just when he's driving. Now I shall have to address the ball all over again."

 

"Oh, NO!"

 

I addressed and despatched the ball. It struck a wall about eighty yards away and dropped. When we got there we found to our disgust that it was nestling at the very foot. Myra looked at it doubtfully.

 

"Can't you make it climb the wall?" I asked.

 

"We shall have to go back, I'm afraid. We can pretend we left our pocket-handkerchiefs behind."

 

She chipped it back about twenty yards, and I sent it on again about a hundred. Unfortunately it landed in a rut. However Myra got it out with great resource, and I was lucky enough with my next to place it inside the magic circle.

 

"Five," I said. "You know, I don't think you're helping⁴ me much. All you did that hole was to go twenty-one yards in the wrong direction."

 

Myra smiled cheerfully at me and did the next hole in one. "Well played, partner," she said, as he put her club back in its bag.

 

"Oh, at the short holes I don't deny that you're useful. Where do we go now?"

 

"Over the barn. This is the long hole."

 

I got in an excellent drive, but unfortunately it didn't aviate quick enough. While the intrepid⁵ spectators were still holding their breath, there was an ominous⁶ crash.

 

"Did you say IN the barn or OVER the barn?" I asked, as we hurried on to find the damage.

 

"We do play an exciting game, don't we?" said Myra.

 

We got into the barn and found the ball and a little glass on the floor.

 

"What a very small hole it made," said Myra, pointing to the broken pane⁷. "What shall I do?"

 

"You'll have to go back through the hole. It's an awkward little shot."

 

"I don't think I could."

 

"No, it IS rather a difficult stroke. You want to stand well behind the ball, and—however, there may be a local rule about it."

 

"I don't think there is or I should have heard it. Samuel's been telling me EVERYTHING lately."

 

"Then there's only one thing for it." I pointed to the window at the other end of the barn. "Go straight on."

 

Myra gave a little gurgle of delight.

 

"But we shall have to save up our pocket-money," she said.

 

Her ball hit the wood in between two panes⁸ and bounded back. My next shot was just above the glass. Myra took a niblick and got the ball back into the middle of the floor.

 

"It's simply sickening that we can't break a window when we're really trying to. I should have thought that anyone could have broken a window. Now then."

 

"Oh, good SHOT!" cried Myra above the crash. We hurried out and did the hole in nine.

 

At lunch, having completed eighteen holes out of the thirty-six, we were seven strokes behind the leaders, Simpson and Thomas. Simpson, according to Thomas, had been playing like a book. Golf Faults Analysed—that book, I should think.

 

"But I expect he'll go to pieces in the afternoon," said Thomas. He turned to a servant and added, "Mr Simpson won't have anything more."

 

We started our second round brilliantly; continued (after an unusual incident on the fifth tee) brilliantly; and ended up brilliantly. At the last tee we had played a hundred and thirty-seven. Myra got in a beautiful drive to within fifty yards of the circle.

 

"How many?" said the others, coming up excitedly.

 

"This is terrible," said Myra, putting her hand to her heart. "A hundred and—shall I tell them?—a—a—Oh, dear—a—hundredandthirtyeight."

 

"Golly," said Thomas, "you've got one for it. We did a hundred and forty."

 

"We did a hundred and forty-two," said Archie. "Close play at the

Oval."

"Oh," said Myra to me, "DO be careful. Oh, but no," she went on quickly, "I don't mind a bit really if we lose. It's only a game. Besides, we—"

 

"You forget the little pot of home-made marmalade," I said reproachfully. "Dahlia, what ARE the prizes? Because it's just possible that Myra might like the second one better than the first. In that case I should miss this."

 

"Go on," whispered Myra.

 

I went on. There was a moment's silence—and then a deep sigh from

Myra.

"How about it?" I said calmly.

 

Loud applause.

 

"Well," said Dahlia, "you and Myra make a very good couple. I suppose I must find a prize for you."

 

"It doesn't really matter," said Myra breathlessly, "because on the fifth tee we—we arranged about the prizes."

 

"We arranged to give each other one," I said, smiling at Dahlia.

 

Dahlia looked very hard at us.

 

"You DON'T mean—?"

 

Myra laughed happily.

 

"Oh," she said, "but that's just what we do."

1 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 intrepid   

adj.无畏的，刚毅的

参考例句：

• He is not really satisfied with his intrepid action.他没有真正满意他的无畏行动。
• John's intrepid personality made him a good choice for team leader.约翰勇敢的个性适合作领导工作。

6 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

7 pane   

n.窗格玻璃，长方块

参考例句：

• He broke this pane of glass.他打破了这块窗玻璃。
• Their breath bloomed the frosty pane.他们呼出的水气，在冰冷的窗玻璃上形成一层雾。

8 panes   

窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sun caught the panes and flashed back at him. 阳光照到窗玻璃上，又反射到他身上。
• The window-panes are dim with steam. 玻璃窗上蒙上了一层蒸汽。