How deeply are our destinies influenced by the most trifling¹ causes! Had the unknown builder who erected² and owned these new villas³ contented⁵ himself by simply building each within its own grounds, it is probable that these three small groups of people would have remained hardly conscious of each other's existence, and that there would have been no opportunity for that action and reaction which is here set forth⁶. But there was a common link to bind⁷ them together. To single himself out from all other Norwood builders the landlord had devised and laid out a common lawn tennis ground, which stretched behind the houses with taut⁸-stretched net, green close-cropped sward, and widespread whitewashed⁹ lines. Hither in search of that hard exercise which is as necessary as air or food to the English temperament¹⁰, came young Hay Denver when released from the toil¹² of the City; hither, too, came Dr. Walker and his two fair daughters, Clara and Ida, and hither also, champions of the lawn, came the short-skirted, muscular widow and her athletic¹³ nephew. Ere the summer was gone they knew each other in this quiet nook as they might not have done after years of a stiffer and more formal acquaintance.