"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.

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