Humorous stories; London (England) -- Fiction; Lucia (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Women -- England -- Fiction
She missed the ball once or twice, and then made a lovely wind-cheater,
only this time Daisy called it a top. Daisy had three clubs, two of
which she put down when she used the third, and then forgot about them,
so that they had to go back for them.... And up came Georgie, who was
making wind-cheaters too.
“Good morning, Lucia,” he said. “It’s so tarsome not to be able to hit
the ball, but it’s great fun if you do. Have you put down your
clock-golf yet? There, didn’t that go?”
Lucia had forgotten all about the clock-golf. It was somewhere in what
was called the “game-cupboard,” which contained bowls (as being
Elizabethan) and some old tennis rackets, and a cricket bat Pepino had
used at school.
“I’ll put it down this afternoon,” she said. “Come in after lunch,
Georgie, and play a game with me. You too, Daisy.”
“Thanks, but Georgie and I were going to have a real round on the
links,” said Daisy, in a rather superior manner.
“What fun!” said Lucia sycophantically. “I shall walk down and look at
you. I think I must learn. I never saw anything so interesting as golf.”
This was gratifying: Daisy was by no means reluctant to show Lucia the
way to do anything, but behind that, she was not quite sure whether she
liked this sudden interest in golf. Now that practically the whole of
Riseholme was taking to it, and she herself could beat them all, having
had a good start, she was hoping that Lucia would despise it, and find
herself left quite alone on these lovely afternoons. Everybody went
down to the little nine-hole course now after lunch, the Vicar (Mr.
Rushbold) and his wife, the curate, Colonel Boucher, Georgie, Mrs.
Antrobus (who discarded her ear-trumpet for these athletics and never
could hear you call “Fore”), and Piggy and Goosie, and often Mrs.
Boucher was wheeled down in her bath-chair, and applauded the beautiful
putts made on the last green. Indeed, Daisy had started instruction
classes in her garden, and Riseholme stood in rows and practised
swinging and keeping its eye on a particular blade of grass: golf in
fact promised to make Riseholme busy and happy again just as the
establishment of the Museum had done. Of course, if Lucia was wanting to
learn (and not learn too much) Daisy would be very happy to instruct
her, but at the back of Daisy’s mind was a strange uneasiness. She
consoled herself, however, by supposing that Lucia would go back to
London again in the autumn, and by giving Georgie an awful drubbing.
Lucia did not accompany them far on their round, but turned back to the
little shed of a club-house, where she gathered information about the
club. It was quite new, having been started only last spring by the
tradesmen and townspeople of Riseholme and the neighbouring little town
of Blitton. She then entered into pleasant conversation with the
landlord of the Ambermere Arms, who had just finished his round and said
how pleased they all were that the gentry had taken to golf.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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