England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Uncles -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Jasmine did not much enjoy her drive, because every time they turned a
corner or a child crossed the road a quarter of a mile ahead, or a dog
barked, or a sparrow flew up in front, her aunt gasped and clutched her
wrist. And even when the road was straight and clear as far as they
could see the drive was tiresome, because her aunt could talk about
nothing except Nuckett's carefulness.
"Nuckett is such a careful driver. But of course he knows that your
uncle would not keep him for a moment otherwise. We hesitated for a long
time before we bought the car, and in fact it wasn't until we had given
Nuckett a month's trial.... Oh, now there's a flock of sheep! Thank
goodness it's Nuckett, who's always particularly careful with sheep ...
ah!..."
And so on, in a mixture of complacency and terror, until they reached
the links and Jasmine was really there.
Travellers have often related the alarm they felt at first when some
savage chief, wishing to pay his distinguished visitors a compliment,
arranged for a war-dance by the young men of his tribe. It was that kind
of alarm which Jasmine felt when she found herself for the first time on
golf links. She knew that it was a game. She kept assuring herself that
it was only a game. But the Italian strain in her was continually
asserting itself and making her wonder whether people who behaved thus
in jest might not at any moment be seized with an extension of their
madness and take to behaving thus in earnest.
Lady Grant, however, made her way calmly toward the club-house and put
her name down for lunch with one guest, explaining to Jasmine that no
doubt the girls would have arranged a luncheon party on their own
account. Then she went into the ladies' room, picked up a ladies' paper,
advised Jasmine to do the same, and ensconced herself comfortably in a
wicker chair on the verandah, where she seemed inclined to stay for the
rest of the morning. Half an hour later she looked up from the fifth
paper and asked Jasmine how she liked golf.
"I don't think I understand it very well yet."
"It's an interesting game," said her aunt. "Your uncle wanted me to take
it up last year, and I did have two lessons; but I think it's really
more a game for young people, and your uncle decided that it was bad for
my rheumatism. Still, I was beginning to realize its fascination--the
holes, you know, and all that--and I believe that when you actually do
hit the ball each time it's much less tiring. I tried to persuade your
uncle to take it up himself, but he felt it was too late to begin,
although of course he's a member of the club and plays bridge here every
Thursday afternoon."
Another half-hour went by.
"Really," Lady Grant declared, "I think the advertisements nowadays are
wonderful. Dear me, how you'll enjoy your first visit to London. You
mustn't spend your allowance too quickly, my dear. You mustn't believe
everything you see in the advertisements."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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