“Don’t despair,” said Tom, encouragingly, “There’s many a slip, you know.”
The game progressed until, when Tom and Patty were about three-quarters of the way around, Mabel was passing through her last wicket and Mr. Stanton was a “rover.”
“Be careful, now,” said Mr. Stanton, as Mabel aimed to send her ball through the arch. “It’s a straight shot, and a long shot, and you’re liable to touch the post.”
And that’s just what happened. As Mabel’s swift, clear stroke sent the ball straight through the wicket, it went spinning on and hit squarely the home stake.
“Jupiter! that’s bad luck!” exclaimed Jack Stanton. “They’ll jolly well beat us now. But never mind, perhaps I can slip through yet.”
But he couldn’t. The fact that they had two plays to his one, gave Patty and Tom a great advantage.
Tom was a clever manager, and Patty followed his directions implicitly. So they played a defensive game, and spent much time keeping Stanton’s ball away from the positions he desired. The result was that Tom and Patty won, but their success was really owing to Mabel’s mistake in going out.
The test was to win two games out of three, so with one game in favor of Patty’s side they began the next.
Patty was considered a good croquet player in America, but in England the rules of the game, as well as the implements, were so different that it seriously impeded her progress.
The wickets were so narrow that the ball could barely squeeze through if aimed straight, and a side shot through one was impossible.