Jeannie shifted uneasily on her feet. Then another idea struck her.
“Then tell me that in five years’ time,” she said. “But for practical purposes, what am I to do this minute?”
There were already another couple waiting to start, one of which was Colonel Raymond. Jeannie saw him, and nothing in the world would have induced her to let him pass. Jack guessed as much.
“Hit this ball as hard as ever you can,” he said.
Jeannie shortened the intended swing, and threw her club at the ball. Oddly enough, it rose clear of the grass, towered, and fell a full hundred yards off, and getting a forward kick was like a bolted rabbit.
“I told you so,” she said again.
From behind came Cousin Robert’s voice.
“By gad!” he exclaimed loudly. But Jeannie did not turn round, and said negligently to Jack:
“Topped!”
Now, the ball was anything but topped, and Jack, struggling with inward laughter, sent a careless hooked drive down wind and far. Then, as is natural at golf, the great silences of the game which isolates the player from the whole world closed round them and they went forward.