"Have you forgotten the time when I fell in the sea last week, and you jumped in with all your clothes on----" "Of course, yes," said Mortimer. "I remember now. It was the day I did the long seventh in five. I got off a good tee-shot straight down the fairway, took a baffy for my second, and---- But that is not the point. It is sweet and generous of you to think so highly of what was the merest commonplace act of ordinary politeness, but I must repeat, that judged by the standards of your snowy purity, I am not a good man. I do not come to you clean and spotless as a young girl should expect her husband to come to her. Once, playing in a foursome, my ball fell in some long grass. Nobody was near me. We had no caddies, and the others were on the fairway. God knows----" His voice shook. "God knows I struggled against the temptation. But I fell. I kicked the ball on to a little bare mound, from which it was an easy task with a nice half-mashie to reach the green for a snappy seven. Mary, there have been times when, going round by myself, I have allowed myself ten-foot putts on three holes in succession, simply in order to be able to say I had done the course in under a hundred. Ah! you shrink from me! You are disgusted!" "I'm not disgusted! And I don't shrink! I only shivered because it is rather cold." "Then you can love me in spite of my past?" "Mortimer!" She fell into his arms. "My dearest," he said presently, "what a happy life ours will be. That is, if you do not find that you have made a mistake." "A mistake!" she cried, scornfully. "Well, my handicap is twelve, you know, and not so darned twelve at that. There are days when I play my second from the fairway of the next hole but one, days when I couldn't putt into a coal-hole with 'Welcome!' written over it. And you are a Ladies' Open Champion. Still, if you think it's all right----. Oh, Mary, you little know how I have dreamed of some day marrying a really first-class golfer! Yes, that was my vision--of walking up the aisle with some sweet plus two girl on my arm. You shivered again. You are catching cold." "It is a little cold," said the girl. She spoke in a small voice. "Let me take you in, sweetheart," said Mortimer. "I'll just put you in a comfortable chair with a nice cup of coffee, and then I think I really must come out again and tramp about and think how perfectly splendid everything is." * * * * *