If the best bowler in England thought he was going to catch his sister napping a second time he was the victim of a grievous error. His yorkers had no terrors for her now. She got her bat down to every individual one, and had the temerity to block one so hard that she scored a single off it. She played a watchful and not altogether unscientific game, and despite the fact that three men were on the onside watching the case on behalf of the cucumber frame, she caused the bowling to be changed four times, and stayed in fifty minutes for sixteen. And the manner of her dismissal was decidedly unlucky. The gallant Artilleryman going on with his lobs as a last resource, his sister was no longer able to restrain her ardent soul: she got in a really fine straight in the manner of her brother Archie, whereon running in hard from the library windows, the little parson effected one of the finest catches ever witnessed on the Rectory lawn. Contrary to expectation the finish was desperately close. Through my ignorance of the ground I had the misfortune to be run out for a duck. Toddles, who succeeded, shaped beautifully, his wrist work and knife-like cutting being a theme for general admiration. After contributing three singles and a two, however, he lost his wicket in a somewhat humiliating way. Grace, fielding mid-off, had by no means forgiven him for his wonderful catch, and was evidently, to judge by her concentrated look, biding her time. Presently, the little parson smashed one right at her all along the carpet at a great pace. Mid-off’s disturbed expression, and the quick way in which she turned round apparently to pursue, clearly indicated that she had been guilty of misfielding, and had allowed the ball to pass her. The unsuspecting Toddles started for a run, whereon the fieldsman like a flash of light produced the missing ball from the infinite recesses of her skirts, returned it hard and true, and the wicket-keeper had the little parson out by about two yards. “I’ll teach you to refuse Halliday, and then take me, when you wouldn’t a’ got to mine at all if you hadn’t been such a quick-footed little brute,” cried Mid-off in triumph. Although it was one of the most flagrant cases of deception that either Middlesex or Gloucestershire had ever seen practised, the unfortunate Toddles had undoubtedly received his _quietus_. “Just the sort o’ thing a girl would do,” said T. S. M. “Beas’ly bad form, I call it.” “Let this be a warning to you, Tommy,” said Miss Grace, who actually seemed to be exulting in her act. “As you’re so young, Kent’s certain to try it on Monday. Toddles will, for one.” “It’s worse than the Cambridge no-ball dodge,” said Carteret, coming in last man to bat. The finish proved exciting to a degree. Carteret was a first-class bat in every way, who had a fine eye, and came down very hard on the ball. Despite the correctness of the fielding, and the fine length that Charlie kept, Gloucestershire won by one wicket.