DICK. [Looking moodily at the paint pot.] I say, is it true that Maurice Lever's coming with your mother? I've met him playing cricket, he's rather a good sort. JOY. [Flashing out.] I hate him. DICK. [Troubled.] Do you? Why? I thought--I didn't know--if I'd known of course, I'd have---- [He is going to say "hated him too!" But the voices of ERNEST BLUNT and the COLONEL are heard approaching, in dispute.] JOY. Oh! Dick, hide me, I don't want my hair seen till Mother comes. [She springs into the hollow tree. The COLONEL and ERNEST appear in the opening of the wall.] ERNEST. The ball was out, Colonel. COLONEL. Nothing of the sort. ERNEST. A good foot out. COLONEL. It was not, sir. I saw the chalk fly. [ERNEST is twenty-eight, with a little moustache, and the positive cool voice of a young man who knows that he knows everything. He is perfectly calm.] ERNEST. I was nearer to it than you. COLONEL. [In a high, hot voice.] I don't care where you were, I hate a fellow who can't keep cool. MISS BEECH. [From behind the hollow tree.] Fie! Fie! ERNEST. We're two to one, Letty says the ball was out. COLONEL. Letty's your wife, she'd say anything. ERNEST. Well, look here, Colonel, I'll show you the very place it pitched. COLONEL. Gammon! You've lost your temper, you don't know what you're talking about. ERNEST. [coolly.] I suppose you'll admit the rule that one umpires one's own court. COLONEL. [Hotly.] Certainly not, in this case! MISS BEECH. [From behind the hollow tree.] Special case! ERNEST. [Moving chin in collar--very coolly.] Well, of course if you won't play the game! COLONEL. [In a towering passion.] If you lose your temper like this, I 'll never play with you again. [To LETTY, a pretty soul in a linen suit, approaching through the wall.] Do you mean to say that ball was out, Letty? LETTY. Of course it was, Father. COLONEL. You say that because he's your husband. [He sits on the rustic seat.] If your mother'd been there she'd have backed me up! LETTY. Mother wants Joy, Dick, about her frock. DICK. I--I don't know where she is. MISS BEECH. [From behind the hollow tree.] Ahem! LETTY. What's the matter, Peachey? MISS BEECH. Swallowed a fly. Poor creature! ERNEST. [Returning to his point.] Why I know the ball was out, Colonel, was because it pitched in a line with that arbutus tree. COLONEL. [Rising.] Arbutus tree! [To his daughter.] Where's your mother? LETTY. In the blue room, Father. ERNEST. The ball was a good foot out; at the height it was coming when it passed me. COLONEL. [Staring at him.] You're a--you're aa theorist! From where you were you could n't see the ball at all. [To LETTY.] Where's your mother? LETTY. [Emphatically.] In the blue room, Father! [The COLONEL glares confusedly, and goes away towards the blue room.]