"And you really are learning croquet!" exclaimed innocent Grace; "well,
it makes a beautiful ground."
"Croquet!" exclaimed poor Lady Temple, with startled eyes; "you don't
really mean that it is croquet! O Bessie, Bessie!"
"Ah! I didn't mean you to have come so soon," said the much amused
Bessie, as she gave her hand in greeting. "I meant the prejudice to be
first conquered. See, dear Lady Temple, I'm not ashamed; this whitey
brown moustache is going to kiss me nevertheless and notwithstanding."
And so it certainly did, and smiled into the bargain, while the boys
came clamouring up, and after thanks for Don's preservation, began
loudly to beg mamma would come, they could not make up their sides
without her, but mamma was distressed and unhappy.
"Not now, my dears--I must--I must. Indeed I did not know."
"Now, Alick, I trust to your generosity," said Bessie, finding that
they must be pacified. "Coming, Con--Come, Grace, come and convince Lady
Temple that the pastime is not too wicked for you."
"Indeed, Alick," Lady Temple was saying. "I am very sorry, I won't allow
it one moment if you think it is objectionable."
"But I don't," said Alick, smiling. "Far from it. It is a capital game
for you and your boys."
"I thought--I thought you disapproved and could not bear it," said Lady
Temple, wondering and wistful.
"Can't bear is not disapprove. Indeed," seeing that gentle earnest alone
could console her, "there is no harm in the game itself. It is a wholly
personal distaste, arising from my having been bored with it when I was
ill and out of spirits."
"But is not there something about it in 'Punch?'" she still asked, so
anxiously, that it was impossible not to smile; but there was not a
particle of that subdued mockery that was often so perplexing in him,
as he replied, "Certainly there is about its abuse as an engine for
flirtation, which, to tell you the truth, was what sickened me with the
sight at Littleworthy; but that is not the line Con and Francie will
take just yet. Why, my uncle is specially addicted to listening to
croquet, and knows by the step and sound how each player is getting on,
till he is quite an oracle in disputed hits."
"So Bessie told me," said Fanny, still feeling that she had been taken
in and the brother unkindly used; "but I can't think how she could, when
you don't like it."
"Nobody is bound to respect foolish prejudices," said Alick, still quite
in earnest. "It would have been very absurd not to introduce it."
"Come, Alick," said Bessie, advancing, "have you absolved her, and may
we begin? Would it not be a generous act of amnesty if all the present
company united in a match?"